KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 — Bursa Malaysia eked out small gains at the close today after going through another yo-yo trading session, lifted by late buying in selected heavyweights led by Axiata.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 7.76 points to its intraday high of 1,501.79 compared with 1,494.03 at Wednesday’s close.

The market bellwether opened 0.97 of-a-point lower at 1,493.06 and subsequently hit a low of 1,491.82.

Despite the gains in the index, less than 20 per cent of stocks on the bourse were in the positive territory.

There were 458 gainers and 401 losers while 448 counters were unchanged. Some 996 stocks were untraded and 51 others were suspended.

Turnover decreased to 2.73 billion units valued at RM1.59 billion from Wednesday’s 3.74 billion units valued at RM2.05 billion.

An analyst said there were lack of fundamental factors to drive the domestic stock market.

"Axiata is in the limelight as investors are positive over its future prospects,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said investors were also anxiously awaiting the US inflation data that might influence the Federal Reserve’s decision on when it would roll back stimulus package.

He believes the FBM KLCI may get a boost from cheap valuations on local market as well as positive performance across the region.

The Shanghai Composite Index, Hang Seng Index, Kospi Composite Index, and the Straits Times Index were all positive today.

At home, heavyweights Axiata jumped 14 sen to RM3.84, Tenaga Nasional and Sime Darby Plantation ticked up nine sen each to RM9.11 and RM3.85 respectively, Petronas Dagangan was 70 sen higher at RM20.30, and MISC gained five sen to RM6.52.

IHH and and Dialog rose two sen each to RM6.57 and RM2.47, respectively.

However, CIMB dropped four sen to RM5.24, Hartalega eased seven sen to RM5.52, and Top Glove lost three sen to RM2.41.

Of the actives, Sapura Energy, Key Alliance and NWP trimmed half-a-sen each to five sen, 1.5 sen and 27 sen, respectively, ATA IMS improved one sen to 50.5 sen, and G3 Global shed four sen to 11 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index put on 51.66 points to 10,951.83, the FBMT 100 Index gained 52.73 points to 10,654.58, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 77.31 points higher at 11,841.39.

The FBM 70 rose 60.91 points to 14,175.48 but the FBM ACE went down 7.22 points to 6,282.08.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.91 of-a-point to 194.33, the Financial Services Index slid 1.26 points to 15,165.13, and the Plantation Index improved 64.91 points to 6,495.00.

The Main Market volume narrowed to 1.76 billion shares valued at RM1.40 billion versus Wednesday’s 2.02 billion shares valued at RM1.83 billion.

Warrants turnover dwindled to 219.15 million units worth RM43.81 million against 309.01 million units worth RM50.96 million.

The volume on the ACE Market slipped to 624.22 million shares valued at RM144.37 million from 1.35 billion shares valued at RM173.76 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 361.39 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (615.93 million), construction (55.76 million), technology (199.78 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (53.46 million), property (56.16 million), plantation (11.38 million), REITs (3.45 million), closed/fund (49,100), energy (276.73 million), healthcare (50.73 million), telecommunications and media (31.49 million), transportation and logistics (32.03 million), and utilities (12.48 million). — Bernama