Bursa Malaysia ends higher
KUALA LUMPUR: The benchmark FBM KLCI ended at its intraday high today on last minute bargain hunting in selected heavyweights led by Petronas Chemicals and Hong Leong Bank.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 1.70 points to end at 1,747.19 against Monday's close of 1,745.49. Earlier, it touched an intraday low of 1,742.85.
The market bellwether opened 0.46 of-a-point lower at 1,745.03.
Petronas Chemicals jumped 11 sen to RM7.75 and Hong Leong Bank put on 24 sen to RM14.
Market breadth was positive with 533 gainers and 384 losers, while 379 counters were unchanged, 413 untraded and 13 others suspended.
Volume widened to 3.97 billion units worth RM2.87 billion from 3.24 billion units worth RM2.55 billion on Monday.
The local bourse also bucked the trend of most regional peers.
Japan's Nikkei 225 declined 0.91 per cent to 18,810.25, Singapore's Straits Times eased 0.27 per cent to 3,179.06 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.62 per cent to 24,261.48.
"The market is also cautious ahead of the meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later this week.
"If tensions escalated between both presidents, we are likely to experience a wave of risk aversion, which will not only hurt the US dollar but even global equities," said a dealer.
Of the other heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank were flat at RM9 and RM19.96, respectively, while TNB and CIMB both fell two sen to RM13.74 and RM5.57.
Among actives, Managepay Systems gained 1.5 sen to 26 sen, Globaltec Formation rose one sen to 5.5 sen, Censof Holdings increased three sen to 35.5 sen and Borneo Oil was flat at 19 sen.
Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd has issued an unusual market activity query to Denko Industrial Corporation Bhd due to the sharp rise in its share price recently.
Denko Industrial jumped 9.5 sen to end the day at RM1.09.
The FBM Emas Index improved 32.44 points to 12,438.26, FBMT100 Index rose 26.43 points to 12,075.51 and the FBM 70 gained 82.36 points to 14,708.49.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 48.79 points higher at 12,886.07 and the FBM Ace added 80.81 points to 5,962.71.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index advanced 29.02 points to 15,790.48 and the Plantation Index went up 24.55 points to 8,217.04.
The Industrial Index was down 2.42 points to 3,262.43.
Main Market turnover increased to 2.76 billion units worth RM2.67 billion versus Monday's 2.28 billion units worth RM2.38 billion.
Volume on the ACE Market rose to 1.01 billion shares worth RM180.26 million from 786.25 million shares valued at RM138.87 million yesterday.
Warrants improved to 191.66 million units worth RM23.18 million against 155.72 million units worth RM22.03 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 256.64 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (477.86 million), construction (243.16 million), trade and services (923.32 million), technology (307.17 million), infrastructure (8.49 million), SPAC (39.70 million), finance (82.54 million), hotels (702,200), properties (381.74 million), plantations (33.58 million), mining (206,500), REITs (9.36 million) and closed/fund (28,500).
The physical price of gold as of 5pm stood at RM173.41 per gramme, up RM1.85 from RM171.56 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama