KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — Bursa Malaysia ended mixed after the last-minute rise of some key blue chips.

At 5pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI rose 3.04 points to 1,623.96 versus yesterday’s close of 1,620.92.

The index opened 2.88 points higher at 1,623.80 and moved between 1,617.92 and 1,625.52

On the broader market, losers led gainers 724 to 457, while 412 counters were unchanged, 622 untraded and nine others suspended.

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Total volume soared to 11.88 billion shares worth RM5.56 billion from yesterday’s 10.29 billion shares worth RM5.22 billion.  

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the gains in the FBM KLCI was led mainly by Sime Darby, which soared 7.4 per cent or 17 sen to RM2.48.

He said the Construction Index gained the most today to the tune 1.2 per cent, while the Construction Index led laggards with a 2.6 per cent decline due to lower crude oil prices.

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Adam said sentiment on the local bourse also followed Wall Street’s advance to record highs overnight as investors anticipated that the US Federal Reserve and other central banks such as in Indonesia and Taiwan, which are having meetings this week will keep policies accommodative to help drive a post-pandemic global economic recovery.

“Investors are watching closely any commentary from US monetary policy makers on the recent run-up in yields, which have risen on bets of faster growth and inflation.

“This could prompt the Federal Open Market Committee to signal it will start raising rates sooner-than- expected,” he told Bernama.

Among heavyweights, HLFG was 56 sen weaker at RM17.40, Press Metal lost 10 sen to RM10, Petronas Dagangan slipped 36 sen to RM20.30, Maybank was three sen lower at RM8.45 and Nestle declined RM1.40 to RM135.70.

Hartalega dropped eight sen to RM9.75 and Public Bank declined one sen to RM4.31.

Axiata recovered nine sen to RM3.85 and TNB gained 14 sen to RM10.80.

Market debutant Teladan Setia increased nine sen to 57 sen, Scomi added 7.5 sen to 11 sen and Widad inched up 3.5 sen to 71.5 sen.

Dagang Nexchange was half-a-sen higher at 98 and BCM was seven sen lower at 24 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 16.86 points to 11,901.67, the FBMT 100 was 22.95 points better at 11,584.25, and the FBM Emas Shariah gained 50.34 points to 13,179.97.

The FBM 70 rose 36.02 points to 15,660.55 and the FBM ACE recovered 120.91 points to 10,747.05.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index eased 43.01 points to 15,602.97, the Plantation Index firmed 74.38 points to 7,230.27, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.45 of-a-point to 191.99.

Main Market volume soared to 8.14 billion shares worth RM4.3 billion versus 5.97 billion shares worth RM4.1 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover dipped to 343.66 million units worth RM56.85 million from 361.20 million units worth RM61.89 million.

Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 3.39 billion shares worth RM1.24 billion from 3.96 billion shares worth RM1.06 billion previously.  

Consumer products and services accounted for 1.37 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.45 billion), construction (427.93 million), technology (1.04 billion), SPAC (nil), financial services (75.83 million), property (556.39 million), plantations (183.47 million), REITs (9.6 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (2.58 billion), healthcare (60.51 million), telecommunications and media (94.32 million), transportation and logistics (219.350 million), and utilities (58.57 million). — Bernama