KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 ― Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed higher today, supported by gains in plantation counters, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.21 points to close at 1,829.45, after moving between 1,820.59 and 1,828.29.45 throughout the day.

RHB Research Institute technical analyst Mohammad Ashraf Abu Bakar said last minute buying in plantation counters lifted the FBM KLCI, which had been in red territory for a better part of the trading day.

“It was in response to palm oil prices which have been moving up over the past two weeks,” he told Bernama.

Among the plantation stocks, he said Kuala Lumpur Kepong chalked up 90 sen to RM24.50 and IOI perked 25 sen to RM4.60.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 16.49 points to 16,571.1, the Plantation Index surged 227.409 points to 8,811.56, and the Industrial Index increased 6.58 points to 3,123.66.

The FBM Emas Index bagged 38.789 points for 12,668.52, the FBMT100 Index improved 28.939 points to 12,330.38, the FBM 70 expanded 34.6 points to 13,869.21 and the FBM Ace jumped 88.68 points to 6,529.81.

Market breadth was positive as gainers outnumbered losers 509 to 344, while 304 counters were unchanged, 467 untraded and 26 others suspended.

Volume rose to 3.28 billion shares worth RM2.39 billion from the 2.86 billion shares worth RM2.3 billion on Monday.

Among actives, MAS lost two sen to 29 sen, Minetech and KNM fell 1.5 sen each to 27.5 sen and 79 sen respectively, and Hubline slipped half-a-sen to 5.5 sen.

Marco Holdings gained three sen for nine sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby were flat at RM9.75 and RM9 respectively, while CIMB and Axiata improved one sen to RM7.11 and RM6.55 respectively.

TNB lost six sen to RM12.10.

Main Market volume rose to 2.61 billion units worth RM2.24 billion from yesterday’s 2.32 billion units worth RM2.17 billion.

Turnover on the ACE market expanded to 629.37 million shares valued at RM133.74 million from 500.43 million shares valued at RM129.22 million.

Warrants increased to 32.77 million units worth RM3.52 million from 30.32 million units worth RM2.87 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 120.12 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 579.44 million, construction 77.15 million, trade and services 1.13 billion, technology 62.48 million, infrastructure 44.39 million, SPAC 127.23 million, finance 55.7 million, hotels 3.42 million, properties 341.37 million, plantations 42.02 million, mining 12,000, REITs 18.2 million and closed/fund 25,000. ― Bernama