KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — Bursa Malaysia finished higher today boosted by fresh buying interests in heavyweights led by Petronas Chemicals and Axiata.

At 5pm, the key index finished 15.03 points stronger at 1,664.99 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,649.96.

The index, which eased to an intraday low of 1,651.35 earlier, opened 1.47 points better at 1,651.43 at 9am.

Petronas Chemicals jumped 22 sen to RM7.18 and Axiata rose 17 sen to RM5.80.

A dealer said the stronger local market was in line with regional peers amid recovery in oil prices and the stabilisation of China’s stock market.

Brent crude oil jumped 5.16 per cent to US$35.08 (RM145.70) per barrel following the meeting of oil ministers from Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela in Doha today.       

Market breadth was positive with gainers trouncing losers by 550 to 304 with 293 counters unchanged, 600 counters untraded and 14 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 1.80 billion shares worth RM1.77 billion from 1.54 billion shares worth RM1.54 billion yesterday.  

Among heavyweights, CIMB rose 16 sen to RM4.42 and Genting surged 32 sen to RM8.02. TNB fell two sen to RM13.18 and IHH Healthcare eased a sen to RM6.47.

Maybank and Public Bank were flat at RM8.55 and RM18.44 respectively.

Of the actives, APFT eased 1.5 sen to 20 sen, Tiger Synergy edged down half-a-sen to five sen and Berjaya Corp was one sen lower at 42 sen. Sumatec gained one sen to 12 sen.                    

On the regional markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.20 per cent to 16,054.43, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng went up 1.08 per cent to 19,122.08 and Singapore’s Straits Times rose 1.23 per cent to 2,640.06.

The FBM Emas Index rose by 95.70 points to 11,534.42, FBM Emas Shariah Index up 93.80 points to 12,303.45 and the FBM Ace gained 33.80 points to 5,857.92.    

The FBM 70 rose by 66.93 points to 12,716.87 and the FBMT100 Index increased by 91.42 points to 11,240.96.           

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index increased by 36.19 points to 7,808.46, Industrial Index added 4.92 points to 3,260.33 and the Finance Index soared 102.50 points to 13,996.93. 

Main Market volume rose to 1.30 billion units valued at RM1.66 billion from yesterday’s 1.12 billion units valued at RM1.45 billion.                   

Turnover on the ACE Market surged to 281.09 million shares worth RM73.53 million from 223.72 million shares worth RM44.43 million yesterday. 

Warrants went up to 217.81 million units valued at RM39.91 million from 196.79 million units valued at RM38.44 million yesterday. 

Consumer products accounted for 92.84 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (236.37 million), construction (141.61 million), trade and services (594.92 million), technology (37.28 million), infrastructure (11.41 million), SPAC (41.89 million), finance (41.19 million), hotels (1.05 million), properties (70.89 million), plantations (22.35 million), mining (1,900), REITs (11.79 million) and closed/fund (18,800). — Bernama