KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia extended their gains to close higher on selective play, a dealer said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) finished at 1,869, up 3.8 points, after fluctuating between 1,863.11 and 1,870.6 throughout the day.

Gainers led losers 380 to 361, with 349 counters unchanged, 516 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Volume rose to 1.49 billion shares, worth RM1.86 billion, from 1.02 billion shares, worth RM1.43 billion, transacted yesterday.

Mercury Securities head of research Edmund Tham said some selective play was seen in a mixture of counters ahead of the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting later today.

“Traders are anticipating ECB to cut interest rates,” he told Bernama, adding that a lower interest rate regime would be positive to the local stock market.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index declined 2.129 points to 17,220.66, the Plantation Index decreased 34.35 points to 9,147.75 but the Industrial Index rose 13.44 points to 3,177.57.

The FBM Emas Index was 18.47 points higher at 12,944.99, the FBMT100 Index gained 17.61 points to 12,590.58, the FBM 70 slipped 11.33 points to 14,137.37 and the Ace Index declined 17.44 points to 6,540.33.

Among actives, Eti Tech slipped one sen to RM1, Sona Petroleum dropped three sen to 56.5 sen, YTL Corp gained nine sen to RM1.70, Salcon added four sen to 87 sen and KNM garnered 4.5 sen to eight sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM9.87, CIMB earned one sen to RM7.23, TNB lost eight sen to RM11.90, Axiata slipped one sen to RM6.88 and Public Bank was flat at RM20.90.

Main Market volume expanded to 1.24 billion units, worth RM1.81 billion, from 809.29 million units, worth RM1.37 billion, registered yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market rose to 209.97 million shares, valued at RM41.79 million, from 174.48 million shares, valued at RM45.96 million, recorded yesterday.

Warrants increased to 35.37 million units, worth RM4.65 million, from 32.92 million units, worth RM3.75 million, previously.

Consumer products accounted for 65.04 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 164.38 million, construction 49.28 million, trade and services 407.65 million, technology 140.39 million, infrastructure 31.82 million, SPAC 148.45 million, finance 41.59 million, hotels 2.03 million, properties 74.54 million, plantations 12.47 million, mining 46,700, REITs 4.95 million and closed/fund 9,000. — Bernama