KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — Bursa Malaysia wrapped up today’s trading on a higher note as gains in blue chips mainly from energy, utilities, banking, and consumer sectors helped offset losses in technology, healthcare and lower liners.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 5.23 points to 1,620.92 versus Friday's close of 1,615.69.

The index opened 3.93 points higher at 1,619.62 and fluctuated between 1,619.21 and 1,624.74 throughout the day.

On the broader market, gainers led losers by 610 to 586, while 406 counters were unchanged, 593 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Total volume surpassed the 10 billion mark to close at 10.29 billion shares worth RM5.22 billion from Friday’s 9.64 billion shares worth RM5.51 billion.

The technology sector was under pressure after a four-day rally, mirroring the loss in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite.

The US stock market finished mostly higher on Friday as the benchmark Dow Jones industrial Average rose 0.9 per cent with the rollout of Covid-19 vaccine making positive progress, but the volatility in technology stocks kept a lid on the S&P 500 (+0.1 per cent) gains and sent Nasdaq lower (-0.6 per cent).

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim told Bernama that the uptrend in the local market was also in sync with Asian peers, amid improved economic prospects following the passage of the US coronavirus relief package.

"Another positive catalyst for the market is China’s better-than-expected industrial production, which surged 35.1 per cent year-on-year in January and February, signalling that the economic recovery is on the way.

"As such, it came to no surprise that banking counters were the darlings of investors today,” he added.

Adam said steady oil prices also helped to push the energy index higher by 1.6 per cent, making it the largest gainer among sectoral indices today.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank advanced eight sen to RM8.48, Maxis gained 10 sen to RM4.63, CIMB was six sen higher at RM4.53, and Hong Leong Bank increased 20 sen higher at RM19.22.

Digi and Sime Darby Plantation expanded three sen to RM3.68 and RM4.90 respectively, while Axiata was two sen better at RM3.76.

TNB was 14 sen lower at RM10.66, while Top Glove and PChem lost two sen each to RM5.18 and RM8.25 respectively.

Of the actives, Lambo, XOX and Airasia X went up half-a-sen to 3.0 sen, 7.5 sen and 10.5 sen respectively, Widad rose 17.5 sen to 68 sen and Asia Poly increased 6.5 sen to 38.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index climbed 22.68 points to 11,884.81, the FBMT 100 was 22.43 points higher at 11,561.30, and the FBM Emas Shariah dropped 6.37 points to 13,129.63.

The FBM 70 slid 27.47 points to 15,624.53 and the FBM ACE declined 39.05 points to 10,626.14.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 96.12 points to 15,645.98, the Plantation Index improved 19.11 points to 7,155.89, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.34 of-a-point to 192.44.

Main Market volume fell to 5.97 billion shares worth RM4.1 billion versus 6.1 billion shares worth RM4.53 billion last Friday.    

Warrants turnover dipped to 361.20 million units worth RM61.89 million from 405.30 million units worth RM73.80 million.

Volume on the ACE Market increased to 3.96 billion shares worth RM1.06 billion from 3.14 billion shares worth RM908.3 million previously.  

Consumer products and services accounted for 1.55 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.26 billion), construction (418.17 million), technology (1.05 billion), SPAC (nil), financial services (107 million), property (614.41 million), plantations (43.06 million), REITs (8.5 million), closed/fund (25,000), energy (518.04 million), healthcare (53.70 million), telecommunications and media (87.35 million), transportation and logistics (165.90 million), and utilities (93.91 million). — Bernama