KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — Bursa Malaysia reversed its earlier trend to end marginally higher on late buying support especially for selected finance counters.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished 4.27 points or 0.26 per cent better at 1,649.36, after opening 3.00 points lower at 1,642.09.

It moved between 1,651.42 and 1,633.18 throughout the day.

The bellwether index had closed at 1,645.09 yesterday.

Gainers outnumbered losers 426 to 346 while 367 counters were unchanged, 564 untraded and seven others were suspended.

Volume rose to 1.57 billion shares, worth RM1.82 billion, from yesterday’s 1.39 billion shares valued at RM1.62 billion.

Affin Hwang Investment Bank Vice-President and Retail Research Head Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said investors were taking the opportunity to take profits out of the market given the weak market sentiment.

“We see that there have been signs of bargain hunting activity in some blue chip stocks, but this would only be temporary,” he told Bernama.

Among heavyweights, Maybank gained 14 sen to RM8.67, TNB added four sen to RM14.14, Public Bank rose 20 sen to RM18.96 and IHH Healthcare improved three sen to RM6.54.

Active stocks, R&A Telecommunication and Vivocom eased half-a-sen each to one sen and 33.5 sen, respectively, AirAsia X added two sen to 36 sen and AWC gained 4.5 sen to 67 sen.

Among gainers were Nestle, which rose 50 sen to RM75.00, Carlsberg Brewery perked 22 sen to RM12.64 and Apex Healthcare advanced 19 sen to RM4.01.

The FBM Emas Index inched up 28.74 points to 11,515.33, the FBMT100 Index increased 28.69 points to 11,207.98 but the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 3.80 points to 12,056.55.

The FBM 70 was 31.92 points higher at 12,941.09 and the FBM Ace added 20.70 points to 5,670.21, the Finance Index jumped 104.29 points to 14,484.63 and the Plantation Index gained 3.29 points to 7,551.42.

However, the Industrial Index shrank 11.01 points to 3,136.73.

Main Market turnover rose to 1.02 billion units, worth RM1.73 billion, from yesterday’s 949.51 million units valued at RM1.55 billion.

The ACE Market turnover was better at 398.94 million units, worth RM60.92 million from 339.10 million units, valued at RM55.40 million, recorded yesterday.

Warrants increased to 154.78 million units, worth RM23.36 million, from 110.32 million units, valued at RM16.22 million, registered yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 151.36 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (187.30 million), construction (78.12 million), trade and services (405.02 million), technology (62.56 million), infrastructure (9.81 million), SPAC (26.35 million), finance (33.54 million), hotels (1.22 million), properties (46.23 million), plantations (13.16 million), mining (99,500), REITs (6.10 million) and closed/fund (18,800). — Bernama