KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — Bursa Malaysia closed on a firm note today, helped by the persistent buying momentum in blue-chips.  

An investor monitors share market prices at a brokerage firm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 24, 2015. — Reuters pic

  At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 12.56 points better at 1,602.75, after moving between 1,592.67 and 1,605.73 throughout the day.

A dealer said the uptrend on Wall Street sparked positive sentiment in the regional markets despite weaker crude oil prices.

"Bargain hunting emerged as investors' focus was shifted from worries over China's economic slowdown to the release of US economic data on Friday," he said.

He said the data would likely indicate whether the US Federal Reserve would raise interest rates at its meeting this month.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 86.43 points to 10,950.75, FBMT100 Index advanced 78.3 points to 10,696.52, and the FBM Emas Syariah up 73.14 points to 11,454.81.           

The FBM 70 improved 64.65 points to 11,640.85 and the FBM Ace jumped 196.02 points to 5,162.23.         

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index soared 103.29 points to 14,091.66, Industrial Index surged 20.11 points to 3,079.37 and the Plantation Index gained 4.85 points to 6,839.25.

Market breadth was positive with gainers overwhelming losers by 578 to 213, while 245 counters remained unchanged, 740 untraded and 9 others suspended.

Total volume fell to 1.71 billion units worth RM1.53 billion from 1.89 billion units valued at RM2.13 billion yesterday. Among actives, IFCA rose 14 sen to 71 sen and iDimension and AirAsia fell half-a-sen each to 13 sen and 95 sen respectively.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose five sen to RM8.47, TNB (+eight sen to RM11.20), Axiata (+one sen to RM5.92) and Maxis (+three sen to RM6.58.

Public Bank, however, was flat at RM17.74.       

Main Market volume slipped to 851.14 million units worth RM1.32 billion from 852.17 million units worth RM1.77 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market rose to 515.7 million shares valued at RM122.04 million from 141.63 million shares valued at RM27.78 million previously.

Warrants shrank to 339.36 million units worth RM88.58 million from yesterday's 893.05 million units worth RM327.98 million.             

Consumer products accounted for 75.22 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (163.97 million), construction (41.64 million), trade and services (392.48 million), technology (40.81 million), infrastructure (19.48 million), SPAC (3.56 million), finance (41.56 million), hotels (907,400), properties (56.93 million), plantations (9.41 million), mining (nil), REITs (11.15 million), and closed/fund (5,000).

The share of Super Enterprise Holdings Bhd would be suspended tomorrow with effect from 9 am. — Bernama