KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 — Bursa Malaysia bucked most of its Asian peers today with the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closing at an intra-day high of 1,804.73 points, up 13.64 points or 0.76 per cent, on continued support of international investors who were buying into local stocks coupled with encouraging corporate earnings.

The market uptrend was noted since last week as more foreign funds returned to the local bourse which finished at 1,791.09 points on Tuesday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd Vice-President of Research Vincent Lau said the uptrend on the local bourse was mainly supported by foreign buying. Cumulative foreign net purchases amounted to RM625 million from July 31 to Aug 7, 2018.

The last time the benchmark hovered above the 1,800 points mark was on May 23 when it stood at 1,804.25 points.

Market breadth remained positive, with gainers outpacing losers 590 to 322 while 411 were unchanged, 558 untraded and 20 others were suspended.

Trading was very active and this was evident from the volume which soared to 2.77 billion units, worth RM2.70 billion, from 2.53 billion units, valued at RM2.32 billion, yesterday.

On positive corporate earnings, Lau said the results, which were mostly in line with market expectation, helped boost investment sentiment.

"Besides, investors are actually quite optimistic over Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) first 100-day fiscal reforms which highlighted transparency and accountability, " he told Bernama.

According to a joint statement released by PH’s presidential council on May 8, a day before the 14th General Election, the party pledged to undertake responsible and progressive fiscal reforms, in an orderly, transparent and systematic manner to enhance fiscal equity, transparency and accountability, as well as, support accelerated productive investments and economic growth.

Of heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM9.90, Tenaga increased eight sen to RM15.58, CIMB added nine sen to RM5.92 but Petronas Chemicals shedl one sen to RM9.04 and Public Bank was unchanged at RM24.32.

Among actives, MRCB and MyEG perked four sen each to 83.5 sen and RM1.23, respectively, Vivocom was flat at three sen, Sapura Energy ticked up half-a-sen to 59.5 sen while Iris was one sen lower at 16.5 sen.

Of top gainers, Far East surged RM1.00 to RM14.20, United Plantations advanced 38 sen to RM27.78, Heng Yuan gained 35 sen to RM7.66, Hong Leong Industries rose 32 sen to RM11.58 and Vitrox increased 31 sen to RM6.80.

The FBM Emas Index advanced 103.96 points to 12,769.47 and the FBMT 100 Index earned 102.72 points to 12,550.24.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index leaped 128.51 points to 12,951.41, the FBM 70 soared 157.10 points to 15,632.21 and the FBM Ace Index perked 38.51 points to 5,460.74.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index jumped 64.60 points to 17,570.54, the Industrial Index accumulated 16.97 points to 3,301.59 and the Plantation Index was 1.79 points better at 7,711.0.

Main Market volume increased to 1.78 billion shares, worth RM2.47 billion, from 1.68 billion shares, valued at RM2.10 billion, traded on Tuesday.

Warrants turnover was higher at 420.96 million units, worth RM86.78 million, compared with 408.85 million units, valued at RM95.67 million, yesterday.

Volume on the ACE Market advanced to 565.34 million shares, worth RM147.16 million, versus 438.62 million shares, valued at RM130.57 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 70.34 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (297.34 million), construction (211.99 million), trade and services (601.09 million), technology (248.67 million), infrastructure (21.80 million), SPAC (101,200 million), finance (46.26 million), hotels (1.02 million), properties (257.25 million), plantations (23.14 million), mining (63,300), REITs (7.92 million) and closed/fund (9,000). — Bernama