KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — Bursa Malaysia remained above the 1,800 points level and closed higher, lifted by gains in consumer and Petronas-linked stocks.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was at 1,803.02 points, up 21.73 points, after moving between 1,801.09 points and 1,831.41 points throughout the day.

The benchmark index opened 33.46 points higher at 1,814.72 points today.

Leading the top gainers list was British American Tobacco, which surged RM1.50 to RM67.50, followed by Nestle, up 90 sen to RM72.40 and Fraser & Neave Holdings, gained 34 sen to RM18.86.

The stronger oil prices also boosted Petronas-linked stocks whereby Petronas Dagangan appreciated 34 sen to RM17.98 and Petronas Gas added 28 sen to RM22.48.

Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing decliners 466 to 400, while 318 counters were unchanged, 547 untraded and 15 others were suspended.

Total turnover increased to 2.41 billion shares valued at RM2.69 billion from last Friday’s 1.91 billion shares valued at RM2.21 billion.

Among actives, Asia Bioenergy eased six to 18.5 sen while Nexgram added half-a-sen to 8.0 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional rose 14 sen to RM14.64, Maybank added 11 sen to RM8.83 and Public Bank was 22 sen higher at RM18.36.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index soared 122.46 points to 12,394.4 points, the FBMT100 Index improved 120.38 points to 12,098.83 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index increased 112.94 points to 12,964.91 points.

The FBM 70 gained 34.46 points to 13,406.11 points while the FBM Ace erased 43.45 points to 6,513.45 points.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index gained 36.95 points to 3,283.57 points, the Finance Index advanced 172.29 points to 15,674.16 points and the Plantation Index added 32.74 points to 7,974.19 points.

Main Market volume rose to 1.54 billion units valued at RM2.49 billion from 1.3 billion units valued at RM2.08 billion last Friday.

Turnover on the ACE Market increased to 770.99 million shares worth RM174.43 million from 537.02 million shares worth RM103.27 million last week.

Warrants expanded to 99.22 million units worth RM20.47 from 73.11 million units worth RM21.15 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 169.11 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (221.33 million), construction (138.92 million), trade and services (663.42 million), technology (96.28 million), infrastructure (15.7 million), SPAC (28.26 million), finance (72.25 million), hotels (1.58 million), properties (110.19 million), plantations (15.64 million), mining (NIL), REITs (9.21 million) and closed/fund (15,000). — Bernama