KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — Bursa Malaysia finished on a firm note today after closing lower for three sessions, bolstered by investors’ optimism as the country registered encouraging industrial production numbers which were beyond expectations, dealers said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 2.21 points better at 1,757.24 from Tuesday’s 1,755.03.

The barometer index opened 0.91 point stronger at 1,755.94 and moved between 1,751.59 and 1,757.24 throughout the day.

Gainers outpaced losers by 460 to 362, with 376 counters unchanged, 596 untraded and 33 others were suspended.

Turnover rose to 1.78 billion shares worth RM1.77 billion from 1.73 billion shares worth RM2.07 billion on Tuesday.

A dealer told Bernama traders would intensely eye the FBM KLCI’s movements in the next few days, anticipating announcement for the interest rate decision from Bank Negara Malaysia, as well as Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Janet Yellen’s monetary policy testimony to Congress later today (10pm local time).

"Yellen’s comments may offer an indication on when the Fed would tighten its monetary policy or otherwise, as cautious trading might occur in the next few days, as investors are adopting a wait-and-see approach,” she said.

Meanwhile, FXTM Corporate Development and Market Research Vice-President, Jameel Ahmad, said the Malaysian economic sentiment received a further lift following news that industrial production was above expectations.

The annualised industrial production release follows the same pattern from recent Malaysian economic announcements, where the data had beaten expectations and this was especially the case with the trade balance report at the conclusion of last week.

"By all accounts, it appears that the Malaysian economy has carried through the same robust momentum that saw the economy expand above expectations in Q1, and it looks like this has been the same story for the second quarter of 2017,” said Jameel.

Among heavyweights, TNB rose six sen to RM14.16, Public Bank and Sime Darby were up two sen each to RM20.34 and RM9.54, respectively.

Meanwhile CIMB declined eight sen to RM6.31 and Petronas Chemicals lost nine sen to RM6.90.

Of the actives, Borneo Oil gained one sen to 12 sen, MLABS Systems garnered six sen to 35 sen, EduSpec was up1.5 sen to 18.5 sen, while Advancecon were flat at 79.5 sen.

Compugates and AirAsia X eased half-a-sen each to three sen and 39.5 sen, respectively.

The FBM Emas Index rose 25.81 points to 12,514.76, FBM Emas Shariah Index surged 37.18 points to 12,746.21 and the FBMT 100 Index went up 24.08 points to 12,159.72.

The FBM 70 chalked up 62.64 points to 14,866.34 and the FBM Ace was up by 77.98 points to 6,599.25.

The Finance Index inched down 2.85 points to 16,666.9 and the Plantation Index slipped 4.84 points to 7,856.95.

The Industrial Index improved 8.39 points to 3,261.6.

The Main Market turnover decreased to 1.09 billion shares worth RM1.6 billion from Tuesday’s 1.09 billion shares worth RM1.95 billion.

Warrants contracted to 160.35 million units valued at RM16.23 million from 172.05 million units valued at RM17.14 million yesterday.

Volume on the ACE Market rose to 503.21 million shares worth RM113.95 million from 424.89 million shares worth RM92.08 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 34.32 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (247.64 million), construction (79.22 million), trade and services (510.18 million), technology (39.75 million), infrastructure (10.11 million), SPAC (2.54 million), finance (66.56 million), hotels (3.65 million), properties (77.47 million), plantations (15.14 million), mining (9,000), REITs (4.46 million) and closed/fund (11,600). — Bernama