KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — Persistent buying support in index-linked counters, led by glove maker and healthcare stocks, helped to push the key index on Bursa Malaysia to end the week in the positive territory, in sync with gains in most regional peers, dealers said.

At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 1.74 points better at 1,577.12 from Wednesday’s close of 1,575.38.

The barometer index opened 0.59 of-a-point weaker at 1,574.79, and moved in a volatile trading pattern at between 1,568.98 and 1,579.01 throughout the day.

Gains in Top Glove, Hartalega and IHH Healthcare contributed 12.27 points to the composite index.

The overall market breadth was positive with gainers almost doubling losers 708 to 390, while 385 counters were unchanged, 530 untraded and 25 others suspended.

Total volume on the bourse decreased to 7.73 billion shares worth RM5.02 billion from Wednesday’s 8.56 billion shares worth RM7.01 billion.

Bursa Malaysia and its subsidiaries were closed yesterday for the Maal Hijrah celebration.

Regionally, Asian markets were mostly higher, led by South Korea’s KOSPI which surged 1.34 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.30 per cent, while Singapore’s Straits Time Index advanced 0.2 per cent.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the positive earnings by constituents of the FBM KLCI index, such as Petronas Gas, partially outweighed the hike in the US unemployment, hence the net effect was a marginal gain for local market bellwether.

"On a year-to-date basis, the FBM KLCI continues to be the best performing ASEAN market, declining by only 0.7 per cent,” he told Bernama.

The number of Americans filing for new claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly back to above the one-million mark last week, a setback for a struggling US job market crippled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Another dealer said rising hopes over vaccine doses for Covid-19 partly aided the day’s performance.

Of the heavyweights, Top Glove soared 86 sen to RM28.00, Hartalega rose 54 sen to RM17.74, and IHH Healthcare bagged 21 sen to RM5.58.

Maybank shed nine sen to RM7.55, Public Bank lost 18 sen to RM17.30, Petronas Chemicals trimmed five sen to RM6.15, while Tenaga was flat at RM11.00.

It was reported that Maybank was among the largest lenders in Malaysia for Genting Hong Kong Ltd, with loan exposure amounting to US$350 million (RM1.5 billion), of which payment would likely be suspended as the Hong Kong-based cruise operator was preserving as much cash as possible to sustain operations.

Petronas Gas, which reported better net profit in the second quarter, rose 46 sen to RM16.84.

Among the most actives, XOX gained 1.5 sen to 21 sen, Solution increased 18.5 sen to 47.5 sen, Pegasus inched down half-a-sen to three sen, while DGB was flat at 5.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index bagged 51.84 points to 11,350.08, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 149.44 points to 13,429.81, while the FBM 70 soared 195.26 points to 14,736.28.

The FBM ACE jumped 640.36 points to 10,921.88 and the FBMT 100 Index improved 46.56 points to 11,159.24.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index climbed 19.12 points to 7,039.66, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.39 of-a-point to 142.27, but the Financial Services Index dipped 91.2 points to 13,026.49.

Main Market volume increased to 4.08 billion shares worth RM3.69 million compared with 3.88 billion shares valued at RM4.89 billion on Wednesday.

Warrants turnover narrowed to 543.82 million units worth RM168.75 million versus 650.25 million units valued at RM249.14 million.

Volume on the ACE Market declined to 3.1 billion shares worth RM1.16 billion from Wednesday’s 4.02 billion shares valued at RM1.86 billion.

Consumer products and services accounted for 999.32 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (981.16 million), construction (142.14 million), technology (439.07 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (43.96 million), property (561.03 million), plantations (604.04 million), REITs (5.95 million), closed/fund (100), energy (449.91 million), healthcare (70.94 million), telecommunications and media (88.07 million), transportation and logistics (193.58 million), and utilities (44.12 million). — Bernama