KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the week’s trading on a high note, with gains mostly seen in finance, oil and gas and blue-chip stocks, dealers said.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) climbed 23.8 points, or 1.4 per cent, to close at 1,727.58, with the key index moving between 1,708.31 and 1,727.58.

It opened 4.53 points firmer at 1,708.31.

They said the positive sentiment was bolstered by overnight gains on Wall Street which recovered further, coupled with easing geopolitical tension in Syria as well as improving US economic data.    

Elsewhere in the region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 26.59 points to 21,731.37 but Japan’s Nikkei 225 softened by 70.85 points to 13,388.86 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index inched down 9.48 points to 3,028.55.

Among actives, Compugates Holdings added half-a-sen to 6.0 sen, Sona Petroleum-Warr parted 1.5 sen to 23.5 sen while The Media Shoppe was flat at 9.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank added six sen to RM10.00 while Axiata and Sime Darby were both flat at RM6.74 and RM9.39, respectively.

Gainers trounced losers 492 to 299, with 282 counters unchanged, 510 untraded and 27 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.60 billion shares worth RM2.48 billion against 1.852  billion shares worth RM2.260 billion yesterday.

On the scoreboard, the Plantation Index was up 92.55 points to 8,203.07 and the Industrial Index added 48.41 points to 2,909.82.

The Finance Index soared 219.02 points to 16,206.17.

The FBM Emas Index surged 161.55 points to 11,968.58, the FBMT100 rose 162.16 points to 11,729.23, the FBM 70 Index jumped 189.67 points to 13,539.53 but the FBM ACE Index dropped 9.85 points to 4,929.81.

Volume on the Main Market declined to 1.179 billion units worth RM2.408 billion from 1.446 billion units worth RM2.189 billion on Wednesday.

Turnover on the ACE market decreased to 309.617 million shares valued at RM61.618 million from 355.099 million shares valued at RM65.117 million yesterday.

Warrants fell to 35.550 million units worth RM3.395 million from 48.193  million units worth RM5.123 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 45.342 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 152.945 million, construction 75.036 million, trade and services 502.545 million, technology 47.577 million, infrastructure 25.791 million, SPAC 81.886 million, finance 86.083 million, hotels 357,400, properties 125.467 million, plantations 27.496 million, mining 73,300, REITs 8.608 million and closed/fund 34,000. — Bernama