KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 — Last minute bargain hunting in selected finance counters lifted share prices to end slightly higher on Bursa Malaysia today, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 4.29 points better at 1,825.54, after fluctuating between 1,819.18 and 1,826.05 throughout the day.

Public Bank and Allianz Malaysia were among the top gainers, rising 22 sen each to close at RM18.82 and RM12.42, respectively.

Regionally, a dealer said that Asian stock markets traded mostly lower as investors remained on the sidelines due to growing concern over the US non-farm payroll report for February.

“Market talk continued to linger that the data might include some hints on the timing of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike,” he said.

On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 345 to 473 with 308 counters unchanged, 636 counters untraded and 11 others were suspended.

Total volume rose to 2.12 billion shares, worth RM2.16 billion, from 2.83 billion shares, worth RM2.35 billion, transacted yesterday.

The FBM Emas Index added 20.88 points to 12,538.88, the FBMT100 Index advanced 24.73 points to 12,228.11 while the FBM Ace lost 116.42 points to 6,623.28.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 36.37 points better at 13,101.40 while the FBM 70 gained 1.91 points to 13,465.49.

On a sectorial basis, the Industrial Index gained 16.80 points to 3,327.898, the Plantation Index improved 14.87 points to 7,98.44 while the Finance Index expanded 2.27 points to 16,103.45.

Of actively-traded stocks, Nexgram eased half-a-sen to 11 sen, Diversified Gateway declined 1.5 sen to 11 sen while Asia Bioenergy earned half-a-sen to 12 sen and Wintoni added 2.5 sen to 25.5 sen.

Among heavyweights, Maybank fell seven sen to RM9.28, TNB perked six sen to RM14.72, Axiata improved three sen to RM 7.13 and Sime Darby was two sen higher at RM9.34.

The Main Market volume slipped to 1.15 billion units, worth RM2.01 billion, from 1.35 billion units, worth RM2.10 billion, registered yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market contracted to 878.93 million shares, valued at RM132.06 million, from 1.35 billion shares, worth RM222.39 million, recorded yesterday.

Warrants shed to 85.64 million units, worth RM16.08 million, from 121.90 million units, worth RM21.10 million, transacted yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 82.75 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (193.38 million), construction (97.80 million), trade and services (523.40 million), technology (48.68 million), infrastructure (19.33 million), SPAC (11.76 million), finance (69.10 million), hotels (6.74 million), properties (75.12 million), plantations (16.41 million), mining (36,000), REITs (8.36 million) and closed/fund (14,000). — Bernama