Bursa Malaysia ends higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the year on a high note, boosted by buying momentum in heavyweights led by Maybank and Axiata.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) rose 3.80 points to finish at an intraday high of 1,641.73, after touching an intraday low of 1,630.03 earlier.
The index opened 0.48 of-a-point lower at 1,637.45. Maybank jumped 22 sen to RM8.20 and Axiata surged 15 sen to RM4.72.
Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd Head of Research Pong Teng Siew said last minute buying interest in index-linked companies had pushed the FBM KLCI to end higher for the year.
"We have seen movements in stocks like Maybank, Petronas Dagangan and KLCC that pushed the benchmark index into positive territory," he told Bernama.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 404 to 362, with 349 counters unchanged, 635 untraded and 43 suspended.
Volume decreased to 1.453 billion shares worth RM1.761 billion from Thursday's 1.77 billion shares worth RM1.40 billion.
Other heavyweights, Public Bank gained four sen to RM19.72, IHH Healthcare added one sen to RM6.35, TNB was flat at RM13.90, while Petronas Chemicals declined one sen to RM6.98 and Sime Darby shed four sen to RM8.10.
Of the actives, Borneo Oil and Sumatec Resources were flat at 18 sen and 7.5 sen, respectively, while Perisai Petroleum and RGB International edged down half-a-sen each to 8.5 sen and 28 sen.
Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia announced the change in the name of Tanjung Offshore Bhd with old stock short name of "TGOFFS" to T7 Global Bhd with new stock short name of "T7GLOBAL".
The FBM Emas Index rose by 27.05 points to 11,466.54, FBMT 100 Index added 30.48 points to 11,189.09, but the FBM Emas Syariah Index fell 10.95 points to 12,014.42.
The FBM 70 was up 53.05 points to 13,035.11 and the FBM Ace added 5.89 points to 4,780.71.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index rose 95.73 points to 14,383.05, the Industrial Index expanded 11.17 points to 3,122.49 and the Plantation Index inched up 2.33 points to 7,748.71.
Main Market turnover fell to 1.120 billion units worth RM1.711 billion against 1.37 billion units worth RM1.34 billion on Thursday.
The ACE Market volume declined to 172.556 million shares valued at RM22.464 million from yesterday's 239.03 million shares valued at RM27.35 million.
Warrants were slightly higher at 158.218 million units worth RM27.492 million from 155.112 million units worth RM27.58 million.
Consumer products accounted for 60.116 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (214.508 million), construction (48.902 million), trade and services (595.096 million), technology (37.136 million), infrastructure (16.854 million), SPAC (10.192 million), finance (60.571million), hotels (175,800), properties (35.521 million), plantations (19.688 million), mining (0), REITs (21.945 million), and closed/fund (108,600).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM161.61 per gramme, up RM1.55 from RM160.06 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama