Bursa Malaysia closes at intra-day high
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed at an intra-day high today, up 0.84%, and backed by firmer oil prices as well as interest in stocks listed on the main board, said a dealer.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) settled at 1,895.18, surging 15.86 points from Wednesday's close of 1,879.32.
The index opened 9.51 points better at 1,888.83 this morning and moved between 1,883.65 and 1,895.18 throughout today's session.
Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd Head of Research, Pong Teng Siew said the market was moving on an uptrend and the FBM KLCI tempted to climb to the 1,891 level, in touching 1,895 on late buying support.
"The blue chips were doing fine, but there was a slight hesitation in small-capitalised stocks, except for oil and gas (O&G), with investors still cautious on the Intraday Short-Selling (IDSS) framework.
"We can see oil and gas stocks continuing to climb, thanks to oil prices, which will also help drive interest in O&G penny stocks," he told Bernama.
The benchmark Brent crude was up 1.13% to US$74.31 per barrel.
There were 505 losers and 374 gainers, with 413 counters unchanged, 620 untraded and 26 others suspended.
Volume was slightly higher at 2.52 billion units worth RM2.69 billion from 2.34 billion units worth RM1.97 billion yesterday.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga bagged eight sen each to RM10.68 and RM16.0 respectively, PBBank gained 24 sen to RM24.24, PChem advanced three sen to RM8.48 and CIMB rose one sen to RM7.31.
Among the gainers, BAT jumped RM1.98 to RM24.72, F&N improved RM1.22 to RM34.22, Allianz bagged RM1.06 to RM11.70, PetDag improved 84 sen to RM27.70 and PPB advanced 48 sen to RM19.10.
The most actively-traded stock, SapNRG and Hibscs improved six sen to 79 sen and 94 sen respectively, Hibiscus warrant advanced 3.5 sen to 45 sen, UMWOG added half-a-sen to 30 sen, RSena warrant eased half-a-sen to three sen and Hubline was flat at 12 sen.
The FBM Emas Index added 98.75 points to 13,235.95, the FBMT 100 Index gained 98.18 points to 13,038.60.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index improved 104.16 points to 13,431.23 and the FBM 70 rose 80.96 points to 15,731.97.But, the FBM Ace declined 24.36 points to 5,488.02.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index soared 148.35 points to 18,519.95, the Industrial Index rose 47.72 points to 3,285.70 but the Plantation Index down 2.31 points to 8,044.40.
Main Market volume rose to 1.66 billion shares worth RM2.52 billion from 1.35 billion shares worth RM1.78 billion yesterday.
Warrants volume increased on Wednesday to 551.59 million units valued at RM108.21 million from 544.92 million units valued at RM103.88.
Volume on the ACE Market declined to 304.77 million shares worth RM57.29 million from 436.02 million shares worth RM80.02.
Consumer products accounted for 69.16 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (448.25 million), construction (73.42 million), trade and services (780.10 million), technology (47.7 million), Infrastructure (50.83 million), SPAC (50.7 million), finance (46.6 million), hotels (6.13 million), properties (46.99 million), plantations (29.05 million), mining (58,600), REITs (7.8 million) and closed/fund (74,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM163.57 per gramme, up RM1.01 from RM162.56 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama