KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 — Last minute buying pushed the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to close at its best today, marking another high for the third consecutive day, despite the weaker performance on other regional bourses.

The key index, which was traded easier throughout the day, finished at 1,883.34, rising 3.51 points after hitting a low of 1,879.82 earlier.

“Bursa Malaysia saw lacklustre trading for most of the day. Despite the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling for the last two consecutive days, the FBM KLCI closed at a new all-time high today,” said Maybank Investment Bank chief chartist Lee Cheng Hooi.

Speaking to Bernama, he also said the market was led by gains in KLK, TM, IOI Corp, TNB, Petronas Chemicals and Genting.

KLK rose 32 sen to RM25.02, TM gained 10 sen to RM6.45, IOI Corp added nine sen to RM5.30, both TNB and Genting earned six sen each to RM12.06 and RM9.86 respectively, while Petronas Chemicals perked up eight sen to RM6.83.

He said gross domestic product growth for the first quarter of this year has spurred positive sentiment as the market expected a strong figure.

“The results announcement may also lift the market. We are expecting a six per cent figure, led by the manufacturing sector,” he added.

On the scoreboard, the Plantation Index surged 75.37 points to 9,366.11, but the Finance Index eased 6.21 points to 17,083.85 and the Industrial Index fell 10.95 points to 3,206.71.

The FBM Emas Index gained 9.77 points to 12,995.47, the FBMT100 Index increased 11.68 points to 12,644.8, the Ace Index chalked up 33.58 points to 6,669.4 but the FBM 70 lost 33.5 points to 14,032.11.

Decliners thumped advancers 420 to 341, with 328 counters unchanged, 528 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Volume increased slightly to 1.68 billion shares worth RM2.3 billion from 1.63 billion shares worth RM2.35 billion transacted yesterday.

Among actives, MAS shed two sen to 19 sen while PDZ Holdings was flat at 17.5 sen.

As for heavyweights, Maybank, CIMB and Axiata all added one sen each to RM9.95, RM7.32 and RM7.00 respectively, Sime Darby gained two sen to RM9.62, but Public Bank lost 12 sen to RM19.84.

Main Market volume improved to 1.36 billion units worth RM2.19 billion from 1.35 billion units worth RM2.28 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market expanded to 280.3 million shares valued at RM103.15 million from yesterday’s 191.47 million shares valued at RM50.07 million.

Warrants dipped to 35.91 million units worth RM7.52 million from 81.24 million units worth RM17.6 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 93.29 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 205.18 million, construction 122.81 million, trade and services 632.21 million, technology 45.03 million, infrastructure 25.16 million, SPAC 61.62 million, finance 54.61 million, hotels 3.49 million, properties 87.19 million, plantations 25.26 million, mining 2,000, REITs 6.26 million and closed/fund 16,500. — Bernama