KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 —Bursa Malaysia ended higher today, supported by persistent buying in selected consumer products and services as well as healthcare counters, dealers said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 7.71 points to end the day at 1,504.44 compared with Monday’s close of 1,496.73.

The market bellwether, which opened 2.70 points better at 1,499.43, fluctuated between 1,498.53 and 1,514.52 throughout the day.

Market breadth was, however, negative with losers leading gainers 654 to 433, while 407 counters were unchanged, 710 untraded, and nine others suspended.

Turnover increased to 4.59 billion units worth RM3.10 billion from 3.68 billion units valued at RM2.20 billion on Monday.

The biggest contributors to the benchmark index included Mr DIY and Hartalega, which contributed a combined 3.58 points to the index, after their shares gained 19 sen and 23 sen to RM3.80 and RM6.94, respectively.

A dealer said the local market saw some persistent buying today following the easing of the ongoing Movement Control Order as announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin recently.

Meanwhile, ActicTrades’ trader Anderson Alves said that Asian equities were mixed on Wednesday in tandem with the performance on Wall Street overnight.

"The Delta variant continues to drive growth revisions in the region as restrictions are being extended. In Australia, Victoria’s State Premier extended Melbourne’s lockdown for another seven days while South Korea’s daily Covid-19 cases hit a record 2,200 for the first time,” he said.

In a research note today, he said traders were watching the recent high-frequency data to see if economies in the region will first experience a period of disinflation before inflationary pressures kick off again.

"Participants will also be awaiting the US Treasury auctions and US Consumer Price Index (CPI) data due later in the session. A strong reading in the headline and core CPI could keep supporting the US dollar in the short term.

"It might put some pressure on US yields, which could change the global market flows for the weeks ahead as traders might have to review the US inflation expectations and reprice the Federal Reserve’s future actions,” he added.

Back home, heavyweights Maybank and IHH Healthcare rose 3.0 sen each to RM8.03 and RM5.82, respectively, Petronas Chemicals improved 1.0 sen to RM8.01, TNB gained 5.0 sen to RM9.73, while Public Bank was flat at RM3.96.

Among the actives, Dagang NeXchange and Focus Dynamics were flat at 81.5 sen and 4.0 sen, respectively, Ta Win earned half-a-sen to 17.5 sen, while M3 Technologies perked up 1.5 sen to 7.0 sen.

The market was closed on Tuesday for the Maal Hijrah public holiday.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 37.80 points higher at 11,036.14, FBMT 100 Index gained 45.99 points to 10,753.13, FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 47.36 points to 12,119.55, the FBM 70 perked up 27.18 points to 14,622.12, but the FBM ACE declined 51.61 points to 7,142.60.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index advanced 64.09 points to 14,791.02, while the Plantation Index went up 46.26 points to 6,147.60, but the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.03 of-a-point to 189.29.

Main Market volume increased to 2.90 billion shares worth RM2.58 billion from 2.57 billion shares valued at RM1.87 billion on Monday.

Warrants turnover widened to 399.09 million units worth RM49.37 million compared with Monday’s 316.01 million units valued at RM44.75 million.

Volume on the ACE Market swelled to 1.28 billion shares worth RM464.42 million versus 769.71 million shares valued at RM286.94 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 546.17 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.03 billion), construction (114.81 million), technology (524.07 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (86.34 million), property (162.83 million), plantation (22.60 million), REITs (3.99 million), closed/fund (174,800), energy (223.25 million), healthcare (77.19 million), telecommunications and media (42.05 million), transportation and logistics (46.12 million), and utilities (14.40 million). — Bernama