Bursa Malaysia ends higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher today supported by buying in finance stocks and selected trade and service counters, dealers said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (fbm klci) rose 10.44 points to end at 1,698.94 compared with wednesday's close of 1,688.50.
After opening 11.23 points higher at 1,699.73, the index moved within a narrow range of between 1,695.37 and 1,702.27 throughout the day.
Among finance stocks, maybank rose 10 sen to RM8.30, cimb rose eight sen to RM5.08, public bank perked 12 sen to RM20.10 and rhb bank expanded 10 sen to RM5.14.
Of the trade and service, misc increased 20 sen to RM7.60, genting added 17 sen to RM8.68, tm bagged 13 sen to RM6.14 and maxis improved six sen to RM6.35.
A dealer said the local stock market also took cue from the better external sentiment following us president donald trump's promise to announce tax refoRM plans to lower the burden on businesses in a few weeks' time, coupled with rising oil prices.
"The tax reduction for businesses promised by trump has lifted the positive sentiment and buying interest for the market," he said.
Of the other heavyweights, tenaga nasional improved four sen to RM13.50, sime darby advanced one sen to RM8.99 while petronas chemicals was flat at RM7.21.
Among actives, bumi armada rose four sen to 66 sen, hibiscus inched up one sen to 53.5 sen and ifca msc gained two sen to 50.5 sen.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 542 to 338 with 356 counters unchanged, 461 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 2.68 billion shares worth RM2.41 billion.
Main market turnover increased to 2.05 billion units worth RM2.30 billion from wednesday's 1.60 billion units worth RM2.29 billion.
The ace market fell to 435.78 million shares valued at RM88.00 million from 457.36 million shares valued at RM120.19 million previously.
Warrants eased to 188.47 million units worth RM25.97 million from 212.29 million units worth RM31.18 million on wednesday.
Consumer products accounted for 110.00 million shares traded on the main market, industrial products (267.60 million), construction (136.54 million), trade and services (990.22 million), technology (51.17 million), infrastructure (63.95 million), spac (246,516), finance (435.05 million), hotels (1.01 million), properties (75.71 million), plantations (132.16 million), mining (12,218), reits (38.78 million), and closed/fund (265,341).
The local bourse was closed yesterday for the thaipusam holiday.
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM169.48 per gramme, down RM1.36 from RM170.84 at 5pm on Wednesday. -- Bernama