KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia extended their earlier gains to close higher today, lifted by buying interests in the banking and plantation stocks.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 2.65 points to close at 1,829.11, after moving between 1,828.01 and 1,831.62 through the day.

Public Bank rose 8 sen to RM19.06, CIMB improved 4 sen to RM7.08, Maybank added 3 sen to RM9.65, PPB soared 44 sen to RM16.36 and United Plantations increased by 22 sen to RM24.42.

Etiqa Insurance and Takaful Bhd head of research, Chris Eng, said Bursa Malaysia’s uptrend was also in tandem with regional markets, in which Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 176.15 points to 14,897.63 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 8.82 points to 3,113.64.

“The overnight positive performance on Wall Street due to the easing Ukraine-Russia tension sparked buying interest globally,” he told Bernama.

China’s National People’s Congress, which announced a growth target of 7.5 per cent and revealed plans to raise defence budget by 12.2 per cent, also helped the markets.

“By maintaining the growth target, it will help boost investor confidence in China’s economy,” Eng said.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 34.99 points to 16,461.12, the Industrial Index 2.57 points to 3,134.87 and Plantation Index 17.93 points to 8,795.71.

The FBM Emas Index improved 26.07 points to 12,645.62, FBMT100 Index 21.61 points to 12,325.16, FBM 70 38.85 points to 13,852 and the FBM Ace 48.5 points to 6,534.83.

Market breadth was positive, with gainers thumping losers 466 to 323, with 332 counters unchanged, 494 untraded while 14 others were suspended.

Volume rose to 2.4 billion shares worth RM2.15 billion from 2.19 billion shares worth RM2.17 billion yesterday.

Among actives, IRIS Corp gained 1.5 sen to 59.5 sen and Ingenuity fell 0.5 sen to 10.5 sen. Of the heavyweights, TNB and Axiata lost 4 sen each to RM11.96 and RM6.54 respectively, while Sime Darby eased a sen to RM9.24.

The exchange issued a query on unusual market activity to Asia Bioenergy owing to the sharp fall in the company’s shares today.

Volume on the Main Market rose to 1.46 billion units worth RM1.95 billion from 1.40 billion units worth RM2 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market increased to 924.85 million shares valued at RM197.93 million from 766.91 million shares valued at RM166.89 million.

Warrants fell to 17.87 million units worth RM2.35 million from 18.94 million units worth RM2.33 million.

Consumer products accounted for 71.5 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 303.4 million, construction 52.05 million, trade and services 591.33 million, technology 59.97 million, infrastructure 19.73 million, SPAC 89.61 million, finance 40.18 million, hotels 213,800, properties

177.27 million, plantations 40.98 million, mining 2,000, REITs 9.47 million and closed/fund 32,000. — Bernama