Bursa Malaysia closes sharply higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed sharply higher today on bargain hunting amid stronger regional markets, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 9.41 points higher at 1,865.8 from Tuesday's close of 1,856.39.
The key index opened 3.14 points higher at 1,859.53 and moved between 1,856.84 and 1,865.8 throughout the day.
Market breadth, however, was negative as losers led gainers by 443 to 437, with 425 counters unchanged, 588 untraded and 22 others suspended.
Volume rose to 2.34 billion units worth RM2.44 billion from 1.95 billion units worth RM2.07 billion on Tuesday.
A dealer said the regional stock markets were higher, taking the cue from the firmer Wall Street overnight as the market participants focused on the US Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting's outcome later today.
"The Fed kicked off its two-day meeting on Tuesday since the appointment of its new Chair, Jerome Powell, and is expected to raise rates for the first time this year at the end of its meeting," he said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank lost six sen to RM10.28, Public Bank perked 16 sen to RM23.68 and TNB added two sen to RM15.78.
CIMB and Petronas Chemicals chalked up 10 sen each to RM7.30 and RM8.29 respectively.
Of the active counters, Sapura Energy added three sen to 51.5 sen, Trive Property edged up half-a-sen to four sen and Shin Yang Shipping gained five sen to 30 sen.
Media Chinese International and Nexgram were flat at 43 sen and five sen respectively.
The FBM Emas Index increased 43.15 points to 13,097.54, FBMT 100 Index rose 49.74 points to 12,865.48 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index improved 26.63 points to 13,255.56.
The FBM 70 went up 8.68 points to 15,622.42. The FBM Ace fell 32.05 points to 5,785.84.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index increased 14.84 points to 3,276.78, Finance Index advanced 64.799 points to 18,150.76 and the Plantation Index rose 6.55 points to 8,014.5.
The Main Market volume increased to 1.64 billion units worth RM2.33 billion from 1.22 billion units worth RM1.95 billion yesterday.
Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 368.23 million shares valued at RM52.49 million from Tuesday's 428.1 million shares valued at RM66.03 million.
Warrants' volume expanded to 325.65 million units worth RM52.49 million from 295.45 million units worth RM52.44 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 89.55 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (265.25 million), construction (66.26 million), trade and services (750.88 million), technology (246.15 million), infrastructure (4.39 million), SPAC (44.39 million), finance (76.16 million), hotels (3.99 million), properties (61.68 million), plantations (18.74 million), mining (186,500), REITs (19.47 million), and closed/fund (7,400).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM160.61 per gramme, up 47 sen from RM160.14 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama