KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Stocks on Bursa Malaysia rebounded to close higher today on last-minute buying support in selected heavyweights, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 4.24 points better at 1,885.72, after fluctuating between 1,872.64 and 1,887.54 throughout the day.

A dealer said most Asian stocks were weaker today, with profit-taking hitting some markets after mostly ticking up yesterday in response to the US Federal Reserve’s broadly upbeat outlook on the US economy, and its chief Janet Yellen’s dovish comments on inflation.

He said Yellen’s outlook that inflation would not get out of control raised the likelihood US interest rates would stay at record lows for at least another year.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index rose 10.68 points to 3,228.86, the Plantation Index added 36.79 points to 9,264.44, but the Finance Index dipped 21.73 points to 17,243.49.

The FBM Emas Index was 324.62 points higher at 13,054.61, the FBMT100 Index advanced 25.41 points to 12,686.11, the FBM 70 climbed 16.09 points to 14,177.2 and the FBM Ace jumped 32.32 points to 6,826.51.

Advancers led decliners 420 to 405, while 319 counters were unchanged, 485 untraded and 17 others were suspended.

Total volume declined to 1.51 billion shares worth RM2.06 billion compared with yesterday’s 2.04 billion shares worth RM21.12 billion.

Among actives, MAS eased 1.5 sen to 22 sen, 1Utopia was flat at six sen, while Infortech Alliance earned half a sen to 38.5 sen and SapuraKencana improved 14 sen to RM4.47.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank shed one sen to RM9.80, and Public Bank dipped 12 sen to RM20.24, while TNB advanced six sen to RM11.86 and CIMB increased three sen to RM7.33.

JT International, in a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, announced that the company would be de-listed from Bursa Securities, effective June 25 at 9am.

Main Market volume declined to 1.13 billion units worth RM1.98 billion, compared with the 1.6 billion units valued at RM18.34 billion recorded yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market slipped to 305.26 million shares valued at RM66.62 million from yesterday’s 343.83 million shares worth RM2.35 billion.

Warrants rose to 40.61 million units worth RM6.95 million from 34.38 million shares valued at RM74.45 million.

Consumer products accounted for 69.02 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 219.29 million, construction 77.76 million, trade and services 511.524 million, technology 49.93 million, infrastructure 27.77 million, SPAC 30.93 million, finance 38.98 million, hotels 1.6 million, properties 86.29 million, plantations 14.45 million, mining 108,100, REITs 6.55 million and closed/fund 18,800. — Bernama