KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 — Bursa Malaysia ended higher today with strong buying interest in selected sectors particularly banking, plantation and oil and gas, an analyst said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 0.89 per cent, or 13.46 points, to 1,525.73 from 1,512.27 at Monday’s close.

The key index, which opened 3.65 points higher at 1,515.92, moved between 1,515.25 and 1,526.62 throughout the session.

Overall market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 563 to 269, while 358 counters were unchanged, 1,016 untraded, and 11 others suspended.

Total turnover improved to 2.05 billion units valued at RM1.62 billion versus 1.21 billion units worth RM1.09 billion recorded during Monday’s half-day session.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said meanwhile, key regional markets closed mixed despite the solid performance on Wall Street as investors are staying cautious on corporate earnings and assessing how companies dealing with inflation are moving forward.

"We believe the direction of the local market is still very much dependent on regional volatility.

"As such, we expect the index to move within the 1,520-1,530 region towards the weekend, with immediate resistance at 1,530 and support at 1,500,” he told Bernama.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 2.04 per cent to 3,315.99, Japan’s Nikkei 225 eased 1.06 per cent to 27.241.31, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index increased 1.07 per cent to 23,802.26.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank improved five sen at RM8.32, Public Bank inched up two sen to RM4.23, Petronas Chemicals added one sen to RM8.90, IOI Corp advanced 10 sen to RM3.89, while KL Kepong slipped 12 sen to RM21.48.

Of the actives, G3 Global and SMTrack both gained half-a-sen to 8.5 sen and 16.5 sen, respectively, Dagang NeXchange rose four sen to 98 sen, and Coraza perked up 5.5 sen to 95 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 91.28 points higher at 10,963.51, the FBMT 100 Index bagged 88.24 points to 10,657.15, the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 96.65 points to 11,665.75, the FBM 70 advanced 86.06 points to 13,468.52, and the FBM ACE climbed 35.71 points to 6,125.92.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index added 40.08 points to 6,575.55, the Financial Services Index increased 106.66 points to 15,799.95, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.38 of-a-point to 201.71.

The Main Market volume expanded to 1.46 billion shares valued at RM1.43 billion from Monday’s 796.41 million shares worth RM951.35 million.

Warrants turnover improved to 146.0 million units worth RM12.09 million compared with 128.98 million units valued at RM15.01 million on Monday.

The ACE Market volume swelled to 450.28 million shares worth RM182.04 million against 286.891 million shares valued at RM124.71 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 431.81 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (248.36 million), construction (60.53 million), technology (245.59 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (54.41 million), property (66.49 million), plantation (24.42 million), REITs (6.20 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (213.38 million), healthcare (34.09 million), telecommunications and media (19.34 million), transportation and logistics (35.71 million), and utilities (15.19 million).

Bursa Malaysia resumes trading today after closing for the Chinese New year holidays on Tuesday and Wednesday. — Bernama