KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — Late buying support in finance counters lifted Bursa Malaysia to end at an intra-day high, despite weaker regional sentiment, dealers said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed at 1,678.80, up 5.77 points from yesterday’s close of 1,671.71.

The key index went to the lowest of 1,670.63 throughout the trading day.

Gainers led losers 416 to 381 while 411 counters were unchanged, 477 untraded and 24 others suspended.

Volume decreased to 1.85 billion units worth RM1.66 billion from 2.37 billion units worth RM1.76 billion yesterday.

A dealer said that Asian stocks were mostly down due to a sell-off in energy companies as the lower oil prices pulled down US stocks overnight, as well as the closure of Japan’s stock exchange for a holiday.

He said that investors were also concerned over US retail data, due to be released on Friday, which would provide some further market directions.

Brent crude oil was quoted lower at US$43.78 per barrel as compared to US$44.05 per barrel yesterday.

Of the heavyweights, TNB rose six sen to RM14.58, Maybank added five sen to RM8, Public Bank gained 10 sen to RM19.66 while IHH Healthcare improved two sen to RM6.62.

Among actives, TH Heavy Engineering and Ho Wah Genting earned half-a-sen to 20 sen and 6.5 sen respectively, MBSB advanced 3.5 sen to 90 sen, while HSS Engineers went up seven sen to 64 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index added 34.55 points to 11,795.85, the FBMT100 Index increased 34.14 points to 11,491.43 and the FBM 70 rose 20.60 points to 13,571.36.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 20.02 points to 12,430.13 and the FBM Ace accumulated 12.32 points to 5,451.71.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index surged 127.04 points to 14,453.41, while the Industrial Index added 7.67 points to 3,175.77 and the Plantation Index advanced 35.99 points to 7,673.64. Main Market turnover slipped to 1.21 billion shares worth RM1.53 billion from 1.40 billion shares worth RM1.59 billion recorded yesterday.

The ACE Market volume narrowed to 286.84 million units worth RM83.26 million from yesterday’s 324.97 million units worth RM93.52 million.

Warrants fell to 350.24 million shares worth RM45.23 million from 646.19 million shares worth RM67 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 79.36 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (245.12 million), construction (50.42 million), trade and services (508.65 million), technology (68.26 million), infrastructure (8.76 million), SPAC (5.01 million), finance (139.43 million), hotels (336,000), properties (69.15 million), plantations (25.58 million), mining (nil), REITs (11.81 million) and closed/fund (19,800). — Bernama