KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — Stocks on Bursa Malaysia closed higher today in line with the sentiment in regional bourses, boosted by the positive announcement by the US Federal Reserve yesterday.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 4.9 points better at an intra-day high of 1,881.48, after dipping to a low of 1,872.64.

A dealer said sentiment on the London market was also lifted by overnight gains on the US and Asian equity markets, after the Federal Reserve (Fed) said the US economy was making progress.

The Fed also hinted at a slightly faster pace of interest-rate increases starting next year but suggested rates in the long run would be lower than it had indicated previously.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index lost 11.08 points to 3,218.18 but the Finance Index improved 44.64 points to 17,265.22 and the Plantation Index rose 32.86 points to 9,227.65.

The FBM Emas Index was 35.21 points higher at 13,029.99, the FBMT100 Index advanced 31.52 points to 12,666.7, the FBM 70 climbed 29.39 points to 14,161.11 and the FBM Ace jumped 41.96 points to 6,794.19.

Advancers led decliners 469 to 366, while 330 counters were unchanged, 465 untraded and 17 others were suspended.

Total volume was unchanged at 2.04 billion shares, worth RM21.12 billion.

Among actives, MAS eased 1.5 sen to 23.5 sen, Talam Transform and 1Utopia earned half-a-sen each to 10.5 sen and six sen respectively, and Infortech Alliance added two sen to 38 sen.

Of heavyweights, Maybank shed one to RM9.81, TNB fell six sen to RM11.82 but Public Bank rose 10 sen to RM20.36 and CIMB increased eight sen to RM7.30.

Main Market volume was flat at 1.6 billion units, worth RM18.34 billion, compared with 1.6 billion units, valued at RM1.78 billion, recorded yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market advanced to 343.83 million shares, valued at RM2.35 billion, from yesterday’s 334.66 million shares worth RM71.72 million.

Warrants rose to 34.38 million units, worth RM74.45 million, from 33.82 million shares, valued at RM4.86 million.

Consumer products accounted for 71.15 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 243.81 million, construction 48.73 million, trade and services 792.78 million, technology 81.81 million, infrastructure 24.04 million, SPAC 44.98 million, finance 36.63 million, hotels 2.22 million, properties 244.81 million, plantations 8.23 million, mining 156,500, REITs 5.23 million and closed/fund 14,000. — Bernama