Bursa Malaysia ends on firm note

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended on a firm note today with gains seen on selected heavyweights such as Maxis and Nestle, dealers said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.85 points to end at 1,833.02 from yesterday's close of 1,830.17 points.
After opening 3.64 points better at 1,833.81, the local barometer moved between a narrow range of 1,830.28 and 1,835.17 throughout the day.
Maxis rose eight sen to RM6.02 with 1.08 million shares traded, following its better results for the fourth quarter of financial year ended Dec 31, 2017.
Nestle rose five sen to RM116.80.
The broader market ended mixed, with advancers led decliners by 495 to 409 while 391 counters were unchanged, 575 untraded and 20 others were suspended.
Trading volume stood at 1.62 billion share, worth RM2.44 billion, down from 1.80 billion units worth RM2.26 billion yesterday.
Dealers said the market started on a good momentum earlier on gains of overnight Wall Street.
"It is, however, expected to remain resilient for the week ahead of the announcement on Malaysia's 2017 fourth quarter and full-year gross domestic product figures by Bank Negara Malaysia which is expected to record over five per cent," the dealer said.
For the regional markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.29 per cent to 29,839.53, Shanghai Composite Index gained one per cent to 3,185.63, South Korea's Kospi bagged 0.41 per cent to 2,395.19 and Singapore's Straits Times Index edged up 0.89 per cent to 3,415.07.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank, Hong Leong Bank and PetGas each rose four sen to RM10.10, RM18.00 and RM17.80.
Tenaga fell two sen to RM15.74.
Petronas Chemicals and CIMB were flat at RM7.98 and RM6.90, respectively.
Among actives, PUC added half-a-sen to 24.5 sen; Sapura Energy fell one sen to 67 sen; and, Sumatec was flat at seven sen.
MAHB was the main loser at the close with its shares down 72 sen to RM8.40, with 39.53 million shares traded after the Malaysian Aviation Commission introduced two major regulations which analysts believed would negatively affect the company.
The FBM Emas Index improved 33.26 points to 13,049.86, FBMT 100 Index rose 28.92 points to 12,774.38 and the FBM 70 rose 67.02 points to 15,973.67.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index surged 45.78 points to 13,363.98 and the FBM Ace advanced 25.17 points to 6,110.42.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index was 46.05 points higher at 17,535.66, Industrial Index gained 7.24 points to 3,232.86 and the Plantation Index added 29.44 points to 7,991.21.
The Main Market volume fell to 1.01 billion units worth RM2.32 billion from Monday's 1.19 billion units worth RM2.15 billion
Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 285.14 million shares valued at RM47.95 million from 287.89 million shares valued at RM50.82 million yesterday.
Warrants volume declined to 314.22 million units worth RM67.24 million from the 310.92 million units worth RM64.11 million on Monday.
Consumer products accounted for 41.34 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (193.19 million), construction (56.77 million), trade and services (489.01 million), technology (59.011 million), infrastructure (8.86 million), SPAC (1.64 million), finance (52.48 million), hotels (624, 500), properties (64.63 million), plantations (31.60 million), mining (206,300), REITs (8.64 million) and closed/fund (nil).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM162.76 per gramme, up 95 sen from RM161.81 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama