KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — Bursa Malaysia extended gains for the second day today with the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) up 4.38 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 1,732.44.

Petronas Chemicals was the top contributor to the index, adding 16 sen to RM5.06, with 1.60 million shares traded.

Other leading movers were IHH Healthcare and Maxis, which gained 10 sen each to RM4.87 and RM6.90 respectively, PBB Group, up 46 sen to RM14.26, and Sime Darby improving 8 sen to RM9.18.

An equity trader said investors and bargain hunters started nibbling at value buy selectively, and the local bourse rose in tandem with most regional peers today, on hopes of a solid US job report data due tonight.

Back home, he added, Malaysia’s better November 2014 export data, which placed the country’s trade surplus at its highest in three years, successfully attracted buyers and saw market rebound.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers by 424 to 342, with 319 counters unchanged, 654 counters untraded and 19 others suspended.

Total volume surged to 1.72 billion shares worth RM1.81 billion from 1.60 billion shares worth RM1.84 billion yesterday.

On other scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index advanced 47.02 points to 11,900.31, the FBMT100 Index rose 46.37 points to 11,636.47, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index surged 69.76 points to 12,449.34.

The FBM 70 jumped 117.14 points to 12,937.33 but the FBM Ace slipped 32.04 points to 5,811.97.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index added 9.51 points to 3,162.11 while the Finance Index eased 19.24 points to 15,180.13. The Plantation Index lost 36.84 points to 7,798.03.

Among actively traded stocks, Technodex slipped 3 sen to 15.5 sen, Technodex Warrant (A) eased 2.5 sen to 5.5 sen, Hubline was flat at 4 sen, IFCA MSC fell 0.5 to 82 sen, Asia Bioenergy Warrant (A) added 0.5 sen to 6.0 sen, and HSI-H4 eased 3 sen to 88 sen, and Bumi Armada gained 9sen to RM1.20.

Main Market volume dwindled to 1.03 billion shares worth RM1.60 billion from yesterday’s 1.05 billion shares worth RM1.64 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market expanded to 492.19 million shares valued at RM131.31 million from the 376.30 million shares valued at RM121.23 million previously.

Warrants improved to 196.14 million units worth RM72.92 million from 170.00 million units worth RM71.22 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 71.19 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 129.90 million, construction 37.66 million, trade and services 509.91 million, technology 73.050 million, infrastructure 17.01 million, SPAC 21.48 million, finance 53.15 million, hotels 4.73 million, properties 91.12 million, plantations 11.01 million, mining untraded, REITs 6.68 million, and closed/fund 60,600. — Bernama