KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 ― Bursa Malaysia ended on a higher note on buying activity following overnight gains on Wall Street.    

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI settled at 1,787.87, up by 7.33 points after fluctuating between 1,779.40 and 1,789.40 throughout the day. 

A dealer said Asian bourses received some boost after the US stock market registered a more than one per cent gain as investors cheered a pause in the greenback’s rally and eyed renewed weakness in oil prices.

He also said the local market saw interest in key finance counters after poor inflation data from the US, hinting US interest rates might be maintained a little while longer.

Regionally, China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 54.42 points to 3,503.73, Japan’s Nikkei jumped 190.94 points to 19,437.00 but Singapore’s STI Index was 6.09 points lower at 3,369.95.   

Among finance heavyweights, Maybank rose seven sen to RM9.16, Public Bank advanced six sen to RM18.40 and CIMB added five sen to RM5.96.

Of the actively traded stocks, Eti Tech went down two sen to 10.5 sen, Privasia was flat at 29 sen, Sumatec fell 1.5 sen to 23 sen and Wintoni slid 2.5 sen to 38 sen.

On the broader market, losers led gainers by 490 to 348 with 314 counters unchanged, 616 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 2.49 billion shares worth RM1.84 billion from 2.46 billion shares worth RM1.90 billion on Monday.

The FBM Emas Index increased 33.96 points to 12,294.92, the FBMT100 Index appreciated 37.15 points to 11,982.71 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 18.19 points higher at 12,883.03.

The FBM Ace trimmed 30.84 points to 7,002.79 and the FBM 70 shed 4.71 points to 13,222.21.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index was up by 22.82 points to 3,283.87, the Plantation Index slid 24.73 points to 7,728.72 but the Finance Index perked 58.77 points to 15,912.53.

Main Market volume decreased to 1.51 billion units worth RM1.62 billion from 1.59 billion units worth RM1.72 billion on Monday.             

Turnover on the ACE Market was higher at 886.35 million shares valued at RM197.90 million against 780.12 million shares valued at RM164.67 million.

Warrants depreciated to 87.76 million units worth RM18.71 million versus 73.93 million units worth RM11.23 million.       

Consumer products accounted for 105.30 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (233.61 million), construction (52.74 million), trade and services (507.28 million), technology (464.46 million), infrastructure (13.29 million), SPAC (13.41 million), finance (31.09 million), hotels (9.06 million), properties (57.81 million), plantations (14.62 million), mining (221,400), REITs (9.07 million) and closed/fund (17,000). ― Bernama