KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia ended higher today following a string of positive local economic data including a strong first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.6 per cent.

At 5pm today, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.37 points to 1,811.92, after hovering between 1,802.05 and 1,811.92 throughout the day.

Affin Hwang Investment Bank Vice-President and Head of Retail Research Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said the GDP numbers and Industrial Production Index (IPI), which rebounded in March to 6.9 per cent year-on-year from a seasonally weak Lunar New Year month, suggested resilient economic output despite the volatility seen in the ringgit and commodity prices.

"Malaysia's GDP data has been resilient despite many challenges such as the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax and the ringgit and oil volatilities.

"Manufacturing output, which accounts for about two-thirds of the IPI, also performed much better than expected (up 6.3 per cent year-on-year) which suggests robust exports and external surplus," he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, he said Bank Negara Malaysia's reserves also stayed healthy at RM392.4 billion as at April 30, 2015, sufficient to finance eight months of retained imports and is 1.1 times the short-term external debt.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 29.23 points to 12,495.95, the FBMT100 Index improved 29.17 points to 12,171.33 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index jumped 53.779 points to 12,996.85.

The FBM Ace perked 60.98 points to 7,062.56 and the FBM 70 chalked up 31.78 points to 13,536.11.

The Finance Index increased 28.82 points to 16,087.78, the Plantation Index improved 15.05 points to 7,517.71 and the Industrial Index firmed 19.45 points to 3,274.05.

Gainers led losers 411 to 358, with 334 counters unchanged, 701 counters untraded and 13 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 1.74 billion units worth RM1.84 billion from Thursday's 1.57 billion units worth RM1.79 billion.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank climbed four sen each to RM9.32 and RM19.20 respectively, TNB chalked up 16 sen to RM14.04 and Sime Darby earned two sen to RM9.04.

Axiata lost four sen to RM6.75.

Among actives, main market debutant Malakoff and Perdana Petroleum was flat at RM1.80 and RM1.50 respectively.

K-One perked five sen to 61.5 sen, MPay gained 1.5 sen to 36 sen while Kanger lost 1.5 sen to 22 sen.

Main Market volume rose to 1.1 billion shares worth RM1.67 billion from 886.01 million shares worth RM1.59 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market contracted to 553.73 million shares valued at RM150.76 million from 588.17 million shares valued at RM154.09 yesterday.

Warrants shrank to 83.24 million units worth RM23.69 million from 98.5 million units worth RM41.01 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 70.05 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (200.87 million), construction (47.81 million), trade and services (609.43 million), technology (52.14 million), infrastructure (9.19 million), SPAC (6.57 million), finance (42.74 million), hotels (1.84 million), properties (56.19 million), plantations (9.48 million), mining (nil), REITs (1.77 million) and closed/fund (46,600). — Bernama