KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed higher today, driven by gains in selected heavyweights and finance counters, dealers said.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,852, up 4.24 points, after hovering between 1,846.82 and 1,854.01 through the day.
For finance stocks, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia and Public Bank closed the day among the top gainers, gaining 50 sen and 30 sen each to RM12.70 and RM19.48 respectively.
Of the heavyweights, SapuraKencana Petroleum improved 12 sen to RM4.68 on news that it had received a new contract and three extensions on drilling contracts worth RM1.45 billion.
Fourth-quarter results posted by Astro Malaysia, within expectations, pushed its shares 10 sen higher at RM3.32.
Gainers outpaced losers 543 to 270 while 349 counters were unchanged, 446 untraded and 14 others suspended.
Turnover rose to 2.35 billion shares worth RM2.64 billion from 1.98 billion shares valued at RM2.05 billion yesterday.
On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index increased 8.22 points to 3,199.13 and the Finance Index 79.93 points to 16,705.54, but the Plantation Index fell 4.15 points to 8,927.42.
The FBM Emas Index climbed 43.5 points to 12,833.94, the FBMT100 Index 37.68 points to 12,482.53, the FBM 70 77.87 points to 14,040.91 and the FBM Ace 25.73 points to 6,776.22.
Among actives, Malaysia Airlines was flat at 21 sen while Symphony gained 2 sen to 21 sen. Insas earned 2 sen to 21 sen, with R&A Telecommunication ending 6 sen higher at RM1.31.
As for the heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby were flat at RM9.67 and RM9.26 respectively, but Tenaga fell 22 sen to RM11.74, and Axiata eased 1 sen to RM6.73.
Main market volume widened to 1.69 billion units valued at RM2.49 billion from the 1.31 billion units worth RM1.87 billion yesterday.
Turnover on the ACE market declined to 610.62 million shares worth RM137.58 million from 621.68 million shares valued at RM170.79 million yesterday.
Warrants slipped to 37.81 million units valued at RM8.34 million from 44.93 million units worth RM13.33 million.
Consumer products accounted for 92.41 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 316.9 million, construction 88.05 million, trade and services 612.99 million, technology 58.63 million, infrastructure 23.66 million, SPAC 86.5 million, finance 106.21 million, hotels 685,700, properties
280.65 million, plantations 19.34 million, mining 63,600, REITs 7.17 million and closed/fund 49,500. — Bernama
