KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed higher today on renewed buying interest, mostly in selected heavyweight stocks, dealers said.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended trading at an intra-day high of 1,866.72 points, up 3.88 points, after sliding to as low as 1,859.01 points.

On regional bourses, Affin Investment Bank vice-president/head of retail research Dr Nazri Khan said China’s Shanghai Composite closed in positive territory after April trade data showed an unexpected gain and a fresh three-month-high surplus.

“There was also some talk that Chinese officials might move to support their housing market, while tensions between China and Vietnam may have tempered some of the early optimism,” he told Bernama today.

Nazri said the dovish tone from Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and accommodative policy decisions by the Bank of England and European Central Bank seemed to reinforce positive short-term global growth prospects and continuous ultra-low interest rate environment.

On Bursa Malaysia, market breadth was positive as gainers led losers by 439 to 339, while 316 counters were unchanged, 523 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover was lower at 1.59 billion shares worth RM1.8 billion from 1.81 billion shares worth RM1.97 billion yesterday.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index rose 2.58 points to 3,183.29 points, the Finance Index 24.16 points to 17,023.76 points and the Plantation Index 31.76 points to 9,152.02 points.

The FBM Emas Index was 19.79 points higher at 12,903.73 points, the FBMT100 Index improved 17.19 points to 12,552.18 points, the Ace Index declined 31.76 points to 6,589.49 points and the FBM 70 dipped 15.51 points to 14,003.85 points.

Among actives, PDZ Holdings and Talam Transform eased 0.5 sen each to 18 sen and 9.5 sen respectively, Malaysian Airline System slipped 1 sen to 21 sen while Hubline was flat at 4.5 sen.

As for the heavyweights, Maybank rose 3 sen to RM9.84, TNB added 4 sen to RM12, while CIMB and Sime Darby were flat at RM7.34 and RM9.48 respectively.

Main Market volume was lower at 1.32 billion units worth RM1.72 billion from yesterday’s 1.33 billion units worth RM1.85 billion.

Turnover on the ACE market declined to 200.02 million shares valued at RM65.82 million from the 438.76 million shares valued at RM107.09 million recorded yesterday.

Warrants increased to 60.15 million units worth RM13.98 million from yesterday’s 35.72 million units worth RM3.61 million.

Consumer products accounted for 69.29 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 225.62 million, construction 53.12 million, trade and services 606.49 million, technology 58.5 million, infrastructure 30.61 million, SPAC 31.87 million, finance 45.05 million, hotels 4.76 million, properties 170.69 million, plantations 12.88 million, mining 128,000, REITs 7.27 million and closed/fund 64,200. — Bernama