Bursa Malaysia closes higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed higher today as investors continued to display trading confidence, even as the government unveiled economic policies with each passing day, dealers said.
At close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 15.76 points to 1,756.38 from Thursday's close of 1,740.62.
The index opened 0.69 of-a-point easier at 1,739.93 and moved between 1,737.72 and 1,760.46 throughout the day.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's media conference this afternoon also bolstered the confidence of investors, as he declared Malaysia would remain business friendly towards all, without any bias.
He also encouraged India to invest in the country.
Meanwhile, Putra Business School Business Development Senior Lecturer and Manager Dr Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff said the positive performance of Bursa Malaysia was due to clearer information disseminating from the government on economic policies.
"Other than that, the positive global outlook and encouraging growth in China's manufacturing sector also diverted concerns from Italy's current political crisis," he told Bernama today.
Among heavyweights, Maybank perked 38 sen to RM10.04, Public Bank rose 14 sen to RM24.00, TNB gained 10 sen to RM14.50, Petronas Chemicals improved eight sen to RM8.13 and CIMB added 20 sen to RM6.10.
Among the actives, Sapura Energy rose 3.5 sen to 58.5 sen, Opcom appreciated 12 sen to 80.5 sen, while Netx, Trive Property and Velesto Energy were each half-a-sen weaker at 2.5 sen, 2.5 sen and 26.5 sen respectively.
Meanwhile, MyEG declined three sen to 86 sen.
Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 560 to 377, with 381 counters unchanged, 583 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Volume fell to 2.88 billion units valued at RM2.79 billion from yesterday's 4.65 billion units valued at RM9.26 billion.
The FBM Emas Index increased 106.96 points to 12,235.9, the FBM Ace improved 50.59 points to 5,049.55 and the FBMT 100 Index was up 107.19 points to 12,053.96.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index edged up 44.24 points to 12,220.21 and the FBM 70 was 125.17 points higher at 14,442.16.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index gained 292.79 points to 17,617.03, the Industrial Index bagged 33.54 points to 3,164.82 and the Plantation Index fell 71.61 points to 7,700.26.
Main Market volume declined to 1.8 billion shares worth RM2.6 billion from Thursday's 3.69 billion shares worth RM9.11 billion.
Warrants volume declined to 603.84 million units valued at RM112.58 million from 754.39 million units valued at RM120.04 million.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 470.42 million shares worth RM76.21 million from 207 million shares worth RM36.15 million.
Consumer products accounted for 38.17 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (192.96 million), construction (110.48 million), trade and services (964.07 million), technology (119.81 million), infrastructure (30.33 million), SPAC (941,700), finance (89.67 million), hotels (218,800), properties (217.16 million), plantations (31.84 million), mining (121,000), REITs (9.53 million), and closed/fund (38,000). — Bernama