Bursa closes higher on the back of bull run

KUALA LUMPUR: The bull run on Bursa Malaysia continued on Friday, pushing the Composite Index (CI) to end at an intra-day high of 1,817.97, while driven by persistent buying momentum across the board, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI moved above the 1,800-level throughout the day, closing 14.52 points or 0.81 per cent higher from the 1,803.45 recorded yesterday.
It opened 1.34 points firmer at 1,804.79 and went as low as 1,803.81 at one point.
The barometer index rallied on gains in blue chips led by Axiata, CIMB, Genting Malaysia, Press Metal, Genting and Sime Darby, with a total contribution of 11.26.
Axiata, which is considering an initial public offering of its tower unit, was the biggest contributor to the rise in the composite index with 3.69 points. The wireless carrier's stock bagged 23 sen to RM5.69 with 11.92 million shares changing hands.
A dealer said strong buying in small and mid-caps, amid the bullish market sentiment and on the back of a stronger ringgit versus the US dollar, as well as growing optimism over robust global growth for this year, also helped push Bursa to stage the upbeat performance today.
The ringgit strengthened to a 17th month high of 3.9970 against the US dollar at 10.32 am and appreciated further to 3.9920 at 2 pm, thanks to the recovery in oil prices and weakening US dollar.
Overall market breadth was bullish as gainers outnumbered losers 696 to 405, while 344 counters were unchanged, 367 untraded and 31 others suspended.
The strong bull run resulted in a relatively high turnover of 5.836 billion shares worth RM3.943 billion compared with 5.05 billion shares valued at RM3.28 billion yesterday.
Among heavyweights, Tenaga gained two sen to RM15.42, Public Bank rose four sen to RM20.78, CIMB perked 1.5 sen to RM6.70, while Maybank was flat at RM9.80.
Petronas Chemicals reversed its recent gains to close lower by four sen at RM8.15.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy gained 9.5 sen to 81 sen, UMW Oil & Gas earned 4.5 sen to 41 sen, Vizione added two sen to 18 sen, but DGB Asia shed 4.5 sen to 17.5 sen and Diversified Gateway slipped one sen to 14.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index surged 128.6 points to 13,165.41, the FBMT 100 Index soared 122.97 points to 12,809.68, the FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 144.25 points to 13,610.74 and the FBM 70 jumped 227.59 points to 16,492.61.
However, the FBM Ace fell 9.93 points to 6,893.97.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index bagged 117.46 points to 17,086.28, the Industrial Index rose 31.79 points to 3,392.18, while the Plantation Index gained 9.94 points to 8,004.76.
Main Market volume rose to 3.836 billion units worth RM3.611 billion from 3.17 billion units valued at RM2.969 billion on Thursday.
Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 1.287 billion shares worth RM236.02 million from 1.335 billion shares valued at RM225.464 million transacted yesterday.
Warrants volume improved to 700.58 billion units worth RM91.53 million from 532.44 billion units valued at RM83.04 million.
Consumer products accounted for 169.56 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (864.56 million), construction (306.96 million), trade and services (2.01 billion), technology (140.45 million), infrastructure (8.53 million), SPAC (16.13 million), finance (88.86 million), hotels (446.700), properties (189.33 million), plantations (37.26 million), mining (23,900), REITs (7.3 million), and closed/fund (10,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM163.76 per gramme, down 16 sen from RM163.92 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama