KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Bursa Malaysia ended firmer today, supported by strong buying interests in mid-capitalised (mid-cap) stocks, dealers said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI closed 3.02 points higher at 1,802.61, after moving between 1,797.14 and 1,803.46

Elsewhere, most regional bourses were up.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 98.05 points to 23,438.5, Singapore Straits Times added 4.31 points to 3,197.21 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 132.03 points to 14,693.57.

Advancers led decliners by 434 to 287 while 340 counters were unchanged, 560 untraded and 14 others were suspended.

Total volume improved to 1.756 billion shares valued at RM1.385 billion from last Friday’s 1.491 billion shares valued at RM2.037 billion. 

Interpacific Research Head of Research, Pong Teng Siew, said today’s trading saw most investors turning to mid-cap stocks as they found there was limited room for them to push up their positions.

“Blue-chips mostly fluctuated and the stocks did not move aggressively as the valuations are quite steady.

“So investors, mostly retail, opted for the mid-cap stocks,” he told Bernama.

Pong said if the FBM KLCI managed to maintain its bullish trend this week, there was a possibility the local bourse would break the all-time high closing of 1,810, which was recorded on July 24, this year.

The Finance Index advanced 66.88 points to 16,875.94.

The Industrial Index lost 0.38 point to 3,094.54 and the Plantation Index slipped 16.72 points to 8,413.03.

The FBM Emas Index rose 25.52 points to 12,556.69, FBMT100 Index improved 24.49 points to 12,286.5, FBM 70 Index jumped 44.84 points to 14,380.77 and the FBM ACE Index was 19.37 points higher at 5,548.86.

Among actives, Hubline gained one sen to 6.5 sen and Hubline-Wa rose half-a-sen to two sen.

The Media Shoppe lost half-a-sen to nine sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank improved six sen to RM9.99 and CIMB added nine sen to RM7.64.

Axiata was flat at RM6.91.

Volume on the Main Market rose to 1.332 billion shares valued at RM1.315 billion from 1.16 billion units valued at RM1.965 billion on Friday.

Turnover on the ACE market improved to 376.859 million units worth RM64.138 million from 297.118 million units worth RM66.717 million last week.

Warrants increased to 44.876 million shares valued at RM4.625 million from 25.186 million shares valued at RM2.848 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 174.176 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 100.513 million, construction 37.553 million, trade and services 699.852 million, technology 56.958 million, infrastructure 19.65 million, SPAC 23.803 million, finance 26.158 million, hotels 1.372 million, properties 173.809 million, plantations 11.659 million, mining 5,000, REITs 6.112 million and closed/fund 98,300. — Bernama