KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed slightly higher, supported by gains in selected plantation and finance stocks, dealers said.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI), however, ended trading slightly lower, losing 0.11 point to 1,860.43 after hovering between 1,856.85 and 1,864.23 through the day.

United Plantations and Syarikat Takaful Malaysia were the top two gainers as the market closed, adding 94 sen and 48 sen each to RM26.44 and RM13.20 respectively.

A dealer said regional bourses were traded mixed as market holidays in major Asian stock markets such as Japan kept trading in Southeast Asia subdued.

He said most of the Asian share markets were higher today after promising US economic news helped Wall Street to a firmer finish.

Market breadth at Bursa Malaysia was positive as gainers did better almost twice as much as losers by 460 to 273 while 339 counters were unchanged, 544 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Turnover was lower at 1.47 billion shares worth RM1.3 billion, from 1.54 billion shares worth RM1.39 billion recorded yesterday.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index shed 5.28 points to 3,174.86, the Finance Index rose 10.37 points to 16,949.73 and the Plantation Index advanced 23.75 points to 9,060.52.

The FBM Emas Index was 10.01 points higher at 12,872.73, the Ace Index jumped 84.2 points to 6,494.89, the FBMT100 Index went up 4.98 points to 12,524.83 and the FBM 70 improved 28.15 points to 14,031.94.

Among actives, PDZ Holdings and Iris Corp added 2 sen each to 16 sen and 43 sen respectively, while Talam Transform and Xinghe Holdings earned 0.5 sen each to 9.5 sen and 23 sen respectively.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM9.81 and RM7.35 respectively. Public Bank gained 4 sen to RM19.84 and TNB added 2 sen to RM11.92.

Main Market volume was lower at 1.03 billion units worth RM1.19 billion, from 1.12 billion units yesterday worth RM1.31 billion.

Turnover on the ACE market advanced to 423.26 million shares valued at RM104.72 million, from 382.45 million shares valued at RM73.99 million recorded yesterday.

Warrants narrowed to 14.59 million units worth RM1.61 million, from the 25.29 million units worth RM2.55 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 73.56 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 207.43 million, construction 73.71 million, trade and services 363.89 million, technology 48.53 million, infrastructure 7.2 million, SPAC 23.49 million, finance 22.34 million, hotels 9.05 million, properties 169.37 million, plantations 15.83 million, mining 21,400, REITs 10.63 million and closed/fund 20,800. — Bernama