KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — Bursa Malaysia closed the week on a firm note today, bolstered by gains in selected heavyweights, dealers said.

They said market sentiment stayed positive in relation to the dovish remarks yesterday by Federal Reserve chairperson nominee, Janet Yellen, on the US economy.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 5.67 points higher at 1,789.87, after hovering between 1,784.2 and 1,790.78 throughout the day.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped to 15,165.92, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng improved to 23,032.15 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose to 3,201.27.

A dealer said the overnight rise on Wall Street, which saw its leading indices climbing between 0.2 per cent and 0.5 per cent to new record levels, coupled with renewed expectations for the Fed to maintain its monetary stimulus programme, also boosted the market.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index improved 21.35 points to 16,492.43, the

Plantation Index gained 55.19 points for 8,680.33, and the Industrial Index bagged 27.53 points to 3,086.66.

The FBM Emas Index increased 35.87 points to 12,475.64, the FBMT100 Index was 34.15 points higher at 12,196.89, and the FBM 70 gained 21.66 points to 14,264.24, But the FBM Ace gave up 16.28 points for 5,741.58.

Advancers overwhelmed decliners 424 to 364 with 333 counters unchanged, 483 untraded and 28 others suspended.

Total turnover stood at 1.489 billion shares worth RM1.583 billion.

Among actives, Unisem-WA gained 6.5 sen to 22 sen, Unisem appreciated 13 sen to 97.5 sen and AT Systemazation slid 1.5 to 16 sen.

As for the heavyweights, Maybank leapt seven sen for RM9.77, CIMB shed six sen to RM7.38 and Axiata lost two sen for RM6.82. 

Volume on the Main Market slightly depreciated to 1.085 billion units worth 1.494 billion, from the 1.09 billion units worth RM1.68 billion registered yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market fell to 354.70 million shares valued at RM74.87 million, compared with the 396.494 million shares worth RM112.662 million recorded yesterday.

Warrants decreased to 40.062 million units worth RM4.953 million, from 48.510 million units valued at RM6.739 million registered previously.

Consumer products accounted for 97.694 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 171.638 million, construction 36.854 million, trade and services 399.293 million, technology 142.726 million, infrastructure 24.477 million, SPAC 51.590 million, finance 62.088 million, hotels 13.447 million, properties 66.522 million, plantations 15.091 million, mining 38,500, REITs 4.426 million and closed/fund 84,200. — Bernama