KL shares end higher for 3rd consecutive day

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia continued its uptrend to close higher for the third consecutive day, bolstered by institutional fund buying of blue chips counters.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) jumped 21.34 points or 1.23% to end at 1,759.00 versus Wednesday's close of 1,737.66.
The index, which opened 0.42 of-a-point better at 1,738.08, traded within a 23.68-points range between an intraday low of 1,736.07 on mild profit-taking and an intraday high of 1,759.75 in the second session.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 631 to 328, with 382 counters unchanged, 533 counters untraded and 47 others were suspended.
Total volume reduced to 2.42 billion shares, valued at RM3.26 billion, from Wednesday's 2.51 billion shares worth RM2.58 billion.
A dealer said gains were extended on renewed buying interest, buoyed by a return in risk appetite, trade and global market optimism, as well as, the upbeat performance of the US Dow Jones Industrial Average that continuously scaled new highs.
"The local bourse will rise in tandem with Wall Street and regional peers, with funds seemingly starting to come into emerging markets, including Malaysia. Year-end window dressing and the possibility of pre-election and Chinese New Year rallies, early next year, was also on the cards," he told Bernama.
Leading movers in the composite index component stocks were four banking heavyweights — Maybank, CIMB Group, Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank which collectively contributed 12.68 points to the composite index, against the only two laggards, Sime Darby Plantation and Digi.com.
Top-weighted Maybank rose 24 sen to RM9.49, CIMB Bank garnered 19 sen to RM6.37, Public Bank gained 44 sen to RM20.80 while Hong Leong Bank bagged 50 sen to RM17.08.
Sime Darby Plantation declined 11 sen to RM5.27 while Digi.com erased five sen to RM4.77.
"The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the third time this year, a move that could bolster the bottomline of banks.
"Banking stocks were traditionally strong performers in a rising environment because interest rates reflect the price of money. When they go up, banks generate more revenue from giving loans.
"They are perceived as to be able to lend at more attractive long-term rates while borrowing at relatively lower short-term rates," explained another dealer.
Among the actively-traded stocks, Sapura Energy and Trive eased half-a-sen each to 80.5 sen and 5 sen, respectively, PUC added half-a-sen to 26.5 sen while NETX, Hibiscus and Sime Darby Bhd were flat at 4.5 sen, 83 sen and 2.10, respectively.
British American Tobacco led the list of top gainers, putting on RM1.88 to RM40.20 while the top loser was Carlsberg which fell 20 sen to RM15.40.
Back to the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index surged 130.61 points to 12,600.45, the FBMT100 Index advanced 130.18 points to 12,266.97 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index rose 24.69 points to 12,867.73.
The FBM 70 bagged 97.19 points to 15,363.00 while the FBM Ace added 12.95 points to 6,477.08.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index soared 387.95 points to 16,656.80, the Industrial Index improved 39.43 points to 3,186.92 while the Plantation Index climbed 22.09 points to 7,853.52.
Main Market volume swelled to 1.52 billion units, worth RM3.11 billion, from 1.48 billion units, valued at RM2.41 billion, recorded on Wednesday.
Volume on the ACE Market reduced to 587.83 million shares, valued at RM109.36 million, from 833.93 million shares, worth RM136.13 million, registered yesterday.
Warrants volume improved to 301.70 million units, worth RM32.85 million, from 173.58 million units, worth RM23.78 million, recorded on Wednesday.
Consumer products accounted for 104.63 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (251.24 million), construction (84.92 million), trade and services (593.48 million), technology (161.49 million), infrastructure (11.78 million), SPAC (332,200), finance (111.61 million), hotels (629,400), properties (158.18 million), plantations (40.24 million), mining (11,000), REITs (3.53 million), and closed/fund (3,300.
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM159.25 per gramme, up RM1.39 from RM157.86 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama