KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 ― Foreign fund buying of key stocks lifted the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to close at an intra-day high today, dealers said.

The stockmarket barometer settled 6.39 points higher at 1,724.75 against Monday's close of 1,718.36.

The FBM KLCI, which opened 1.66 points weaker at 1,716.70, slipped to its lowest level of 1,715.79 in early trade.

MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd Head of Research Zulkifli Hamzah said net foreign buying on Bursa Malaysia had extended for the sixteenth consecutive day.

"The return of optimism has been very strong since the beginning of March," he told Bernama, adding the local bourse had attracted more external portfolio capital than its regional peers.

However, he said the window of opportunity for foreign funds to enter the local equity market was still open despite the relatively heavy buying this month as the foreign shareholdings in Malaysian stocks were still low, at less than 23 per cent.

The local currency is also performing well, nearing a seven-month high of 3.9910/9970 at 3.00 pm for the first time this year, having last tested the3.9600/9630 level on Aug 11, 2015. 

Zulkifli said the upward momentum looked sustainable as oil prices remained resilient coupled with the fact that offshore non-deliverable forward markets were bullish on the ringgit.

Meanwhile, market breadth was negative as decliners outpaced advancers 473 to 396 with 353 counters unchanged, 526 untraded and 12 others suspended. 

Volume rose to 2.42 billion shares valued at RM2.88 billion from 2.01 billion shares worth RM2.05 billion transacted on Monday.

For heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.95, TNB jumped 52 sen to RM14, Public Bank added two sen to RM18.98 while Petronas Chemicals slipped nine sen to RM6.70.

Active stocks included Hubline which was flat at one sen, Eka Noodles shed three sen to 22 sen, AirAsia rose one sen to RM1.76 and Key Alliance earned half-a-sen to 7.5 sen

The FBM Emas Index improved 34.69 points to 11,943.40, the FBMT100 Index went up 37.90 points to 11,645.58 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 54.42 points to 12,569.82. 

The FBM 70 advanced 23.95 points to 13,179.57 and the FBM Ace rose 29.87 points to 5,731.52.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index chalked up 16.08 points to 14,697.96, the Industrial Index perked 3.37 points to 3,289.52 while the Plantation Index improved 18.43 points to 8,060.25. 

Main Market volume rose to 1.83 billion units worth RM2.78 billion from 1.34 billion units valued at RM1.94 billion on Monday.

Turnover on the ACE Market advanced to 385.86 million units worth RM64.49 million against Monday's 308.77 million units valued at RM59.36 million.

Warrants declined to 208.14 million units worth RM30.24 million from 359.96 million units valued at RM44.79 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 304.60 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (367.72 million), construction (172.22 million), trade and services (687.44 million), technology (17.88 million), infrastructure (14.44 million), SPAC (84.06 million), finance (55.34 million), hotels (2.21 million), properties (72.02 million), plantations (40.39 million), mining

(5,000), REITs (9.21 million) and closed/fund (5,100). ― Bernama