KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia and most of its regional peers remained steady at today’s close, underpinned by a strong rebound on the Wall Street.

A dealer said the US stock market welcomed the dovish statement from the Federal Reserve that it was not ready to raise interest rates anytime soon.

“This has sent positive sentiment to most of the markets, including ours,” he said.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI ended 11.56 points higher at 1,809.13 after moving on a broad range between 1,798.03 and 1,815.71 throughout the day.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 348.81 points to 24,468.89, Singapore’s STI Index rose 21.16 points to 3,382.91, but Japan’s Nikkei lost 67.92 points to 19,476.56.

On the broader market, gainers thumped losers by 476 to 336 with 327 counters unchanged, 627 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Total volume increased to 2.21 billion shares worth RM1.84 billion from 2.13 billion shares worth RM1.87 yesterday.

Among heavyweights, Maybank rose seven sen to RM9.23, Public Bank added 14 sen to RM18.64, Axiata gained three sen to RM7.05, but TNB was down by eight sen to RM14.58.

Of the actively-traded stocks, The Media Shoppe was flat at 6.5 sen, Asia Bioenergy and Xinghe inched up half-a-sen each to 10.5 sen and 13 sen, respectively, and Wintoni was seven sen higher at 35.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index increased by 72.32 points to 12,408.60, the FBMT100 Index garnered 71.28 points to 12,102.91 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index perked 72.80 points to 12,989.40.

The FBM Ace climbed 113.88 points to 6,963.81 and the FBM 70 advanced 54.99 points to 13,269.65.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index was up by 22.09 points to 3,327.42, the Plantation Index rose 77.92 points to 7,810.76 while the Finance Index soared 127.95 points to 16,033.14.

Main Market volume increased to 1.17 billion units worth RM1.66 billion against yesterday’s 1.10 billion shares worth RM1.70 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market rose to 949.58 million shares valued at RM161.99 million versus 900.37 million shares valued at RM170.80 million.

Warrants decreased to 89.29 million units worth RM18.65 million from 127.86 million units worth RM42.84 million.

Consumer products accounted for 117.05 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (278.43 million), construction (32.16 million), trade and services (515.76 million), technology (83.88 million), infrastructure (10.71 million), SPAC (15.40 million), finance (40.22 million), hotels (6.62 million), properties (54.79 million), plantations (11.54 million), mining (144,500), REITs (7.88 million) and closed/fund (12,000). — Bernama