KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 — The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed at an all-time high of 1,861.06 today, up 16.96 points.

The benchmark index hovered between 1,843.9 and 1,859.91 throughout the day’s trading buoyed by fund accumulation activities ahead of the new year.

Affin Investment Bank Bhd Vice-President and Head of Retail Research Dr Nazri Khan said the improving market is a good sign as traders anticipate next year to be a good year.

“This is more than just window dressing. This is fund accumulation in anticipation of a stronger year next year,” he told Bernama.

He said traders’ bullish sentiment was sparked by economic recovery in the US and Europe.

“To date, the US Dow Jones index has gained 27 per cent this year, the strongest performance since 1997,” he said.

He said the US’ solid performance is forecast to continue next year and the spillover effect is expected to benefit US trading partners including Malaysia.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index declined 6.77 points to 16,900.9 but the Industrial Index firmed 21.44 points to 3,156.16 and the Plantation Index surged 119.52 points to 8,881.22.

The FBM Emas Index jumped 109.26 points to 12,815.83, the FBMT100 Index chalked up 108.44 points to 12,552.32, the FBM 70 perked 98.7 points to 14,151.29 and the FBM Ace firmed 32.79 points to 5,622.86.

Market breadth was positive with 495 gainers against 262 losers while 335 were unchanged and 469 others were untraded, including 33 other counters which were suspended.

Volume rose to 1.18 billion shares worth RM1.28 billion from 905.01 million shares worth RM818.25 million on Tuesday.

Among actives, Hubline added one sen to 5.5 sen, Xidelang and Berjaya Corp gained 5.5 sen each to 43.5 sen and 60 sen respectively, OSK Ventures earned 2.5 sen to 54.5 sen but Tiger Synergy slipped half-a-sen to 14 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Tenaga advanced 46 sen to RM11.60, Axiata added one sen to RM6.90 and Sime Darby gained eight sen to RM9.55.

Maybank lost nine sen to RM9.95 and CIMB slipped one sen to RM7.61.

Volume on the Main Market rose to 911.76 million shares worth RM1.21 billion from yesterday’s 716.91 million shares worth RM771.21 million.

Turnover on the ACE market increased to 217.91 million shares valued at RM65.15 million from 160.74 million shares valued at RM41.47 million.

Warrants doubled to 55.39 million units worth RM5.98 million from 21.79 million shares worth RM2.72 million.

Consumer products accounted for 126.65 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 129.69 million, construction 44.33 million, trade and services 359.91 million, technology 32.14 million, infrastructure 9.8 million, SPAC 31.45 million, finance 74.1 million, hotels 333,400, properties 85.28 million, plantations 13.4 million, mining 96,000, REITs 4.51 million and closed/fund 14,000. — Bernama