KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed marginally higher supported by gains in selected finance stocks, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark index ended at 1,856.61, up 0.98 of a point, after hovering between 1,856.27 and 1,869.09 through the day.

Heavyweight Public Bank added 80 sen or 4.0 per cent to RM20.80, contributing 3.58 points to the key benchmark index, followed by CIMB, which rose 17 sen or 2.35 per cent to RM7.42, accounting for 2.53 points rise to the key barometer.

Asian stocks were traded mixed as investors remained cautious ahead of the US jobs report expected to be released later tonight.

Gainers outpaced losers 431 to 418, with 318 counters unchanged, 442 untraded and 15 others suspended.

Turnover fell to 2.06 billion shares, worth RM2.83 billion, from 2.12 billion shares, valued at RM2.81 billion, yesterday.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index decreased 39.7 points to 3,169.69, the Plantation Index erased 77.79 points to 8,873.78 but the Finance Index surged 218.72 points to 17,036.02.

The FBM Emas Index dipped 13.62 points to 12,842.78, the FBMT100 Index shed 12.24 points to 12,491.75, the FBM 70 erased 87.19 points to 13,966.17 but the FBM Ace rose 12.43 points to 6,782.78.

Among actives, KNM Group gained 9 sen to 86.5 sen, Hubline eased 0.5 sen to 4.5 sen while Ingenuity Consolidated and PDZ Holdings were both flat at 8.5 sen and 12 sen respectively.

As for heavyweights, Maybank climbed 8 sen to RM9.76, Tenaga Nasional rose 4 sen to RM11.34, Axiata gained 2 sen to RM6.73 but Sime Darby was flat at RM9.26.

Main market volume widened to 1.59 billion units, worth RM2.7 billion, from 1.58 billion units, valued at RM2.66 billion, yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market fell to 399.81 million shares, worth RM113.87 million, from yesterday’s 500.4 million shares valued at RM136 million.

Warrants advanced to 63.4 million units, valued at RM15.05 million, from 38.67 million units, worth RM9.29 million.

Consumer products accounted for 109.9 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 424.12 million, construction 108.91 million, trade and services 500.51 million, technology 68.68 million, infrastructure 17.57 million, SPAC 26.5 million, finance 94.57 million, hotels 1.67 million, properties 220.52 million, plantations 12.78 million, mining 161,600, REITs 4.21 million and closed/fund 143,300. — Bernama