Bursa Malaysia ends at intra-day high
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended at intra-day high today on continuous buying interest in trading/service- and finance-related stocks, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at 1,643.75, up 11.28 points from Wednesday's close of 1,632.47, after moving between 1,636.09 and 1,643.75.
The benchmark index opened 6.92 points higher at 1,639.3.
Market breadth was positive with 390 gainers and 379 losers, while 379 counters were unchanged, 617 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Volume rose to 1.09 billion shares worth RM1.56 billion from 1.04 billion units worth RM1.37 billion on Wednesday.
A dealer said the market remained positive throughout the day on year-end window-dressing amid better financial performance of the companies in the third quarter.
"The local bourse also tracked its Asian peers. Most of them were higher today, fuelled by overnight gains on Wall Street," he said.
Among Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.45% to 18,765.47, South Korea's Kospi was 1.97% higher at 2,031.07 and Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index increased 0.52% to 5,292.49.
Singapore's Straits Times Index, however, fell 0.02% to 2,959.15.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM7.90, TNB advanced two sen to RM14.00, Petronas Chemicals was up five sen to RM6.90 and Sime Darby was three sen higher to RM8.14.
IHH Healthcare were flat at RM6.40.
Among gainers, BAT rose 72 sen RM44.98, Aeon Credit improved 60 sen to RM14.32, Hong Leong Financial gained 40 sen to RM15.20, AMMB was up 27 sen to RM4.45 and Petronas Dagangan was 26 sen better at RM23.46.
Of the actives, RGB International rose 1.5 sen to 26 sen and AirAsia edged up one sen to RM2.53.
Asia Bioenergy, KNM and Accsoft were unchanged at six sen, 32.5 sen and 31 sen, respectively.
The FBM Emas Index jumped 89.38 points to 11,484.21, FBMT 100 Index soared 90.93 points to 11,223.61 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index surged by 95.37 points to 12,028.11.
The FBM 70 rose 157.09 points to 13,154.26 and the FBM Ace increased 37.39 points to 4,740.97.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index was up 74.18 points to 14,353.88, Plantation Index rose 41.02 points to 7,742.89 and the Industrial Index added 8.18 points to 3,097.56.
Main Market turnover improved to 708.95 million units worth RM1.5 billion from 661.53 million units worth RM1.31 billion on Wednesday.
The ACE Market volume fell to 142.02 million shares valued at RM19.86 million from 178.57 million shares valued at RM20.38 million yesterday.
Warrants increased to 230.32 million units worth RM45.43 million from 193.03 million units worth RM39.27 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 40.26 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (154.67 million), construction (62.49 million), trade and services (292.7 million), technology (22.16 million), infrastructure (12.18 million), SPAC (13.7 million), finance (37.55 million), hotels (248,000), properties (35.3 million), plantations (15.07 million), mining (12,000), REITs (22.5 million) and closed/fund (45,000).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM161.71 per gramme, up 20 sen from RM161.51 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama