KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 — Bursa Malaysia closed higher Friday as the market gradually regained momentum due to signs of global economic recovery and some optimism over the US-China relations.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 3.69 points to 1,601.42 points from yesterday's close of 1,597.73 points.

The index opened 1.01 points better at 1,598.74 and moved between 1,593.24 and 1,603.01 throughout the session.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said global economic recovery became the focal point among investors as the US Labour Department data showed claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a one-year low for the week ended March 19 2021, indicating that the world's biggest economy is on the pathway to higher growth as the public health situation improves.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 696 to 345, while 461 counters were unchanged, 730 untraded and 45 others suspended.

Total volume fell to 5.96 billion shares valued at RM3.24 billion from 6.01 billion shares valued at RM3.04 billion on Thursday.

Chinese ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, reaffirmed that China has no intention to replace the US as the world's leading country.

He told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that China aimed to meet the growing inspiration of the Chinese people for better life and replacing US as world's leading country has never been the national strategy.

Back home, echoing the economic recovery theme, Adam further explained that a number of banking heavyweights posted gains today.

On a sectoral basis, index-linked transportation and logistics gainers advanced by 1.8 per cent, boosted by shares of port operators such as MMC Corporation and Westports Holdings as Port Klang and Port of Tanjung Pelepas are said to have minimal impact from the blockage in the Suez Canal.

Index-linked banking counters, Maybank and PBBank added two sen each to RM8.25 and RM4.19, respectively, HLB added 10 sen to RM18.78,  but CIMB was down two sen to RM4.44.

For index-linked transportation and logistics constituents, Westports advanced 17 sen to RM4.50 while the most active counter, MMC added seven sen to RM1.07.

As for the other active counters, Fintec was flat at seven sen, Matang gained 1.5 sen at 12.5 sen, Widad advanced 5.5 sen at 55.5 sen, Komark was up 4.5 sen at 36 sen, DNex shed 1.5 sen to 94.5 sen, and Saudee erased 9.5 sen to 40.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 41.94 points to 11,778.29, the FBMT 100 climbed 34.37 points to 11,443.98, and the FBM Emas Shariah rose 36.56 points to 13,078.16, while the FBM ACE jumped 154.27 points to 10,517.11 and the FBM 70 put on 77.59 points to 15,550.46. 

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index advanced 18.10 points to 7,100.45 and the Financial Services Index increased 52.33 points to 15,300.29, but the Industrial Products and Services Index slipped 0.06 of-a-point to 191.41.

Main Market volume fell to 3.55 billion shares worth RM2.52 billion from 3.83 billion shares worth RM2.48 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover improved to 274.27 million units valued at RM50.24 million from 248.34 million units valued at RM43.18 million.

Volume on the ACE Market jumped to 2.13 billion shares worth RM666.76 million from 1.93 billion shares worth RM516.15 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 699.01 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.04 billion), construction (185.22 million), technology (522.64 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (73.09 million), property (427.52 million), plantations (50.83 million), REITs (5.78 million), closed/fund (32,100), energy (255.23 million), healthcare (28.50 million), telecommunications and media (72.63 million), transportation and logistics (163.84 million), and utilities (27.34 million). — Bernama