KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 15 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia closed higher today, supported by gains in selected finance counters and the recovery of the ringgit, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,745, down 2.99 points, after hovering between 1,738.24 and 1,750.94 through the day.

Heavyweight counter Maybank was among the top gainers, rising 21 sen or 2.5 per cent to RM8.60 while CIMB, one of the most actively traded counters, increased 16 sen or 2.78 per cent to RM5.91.

The Finance Index ended trading 168.45 points better at 15,392.79.

On other scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index rose 25.41 points to 12,016.47, the FBMT100 Index slipped 19.96 points to 11,735.55, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 0.36 of a point to 12,539.46.

The FBM 70 gained 21.66 points to 13,104.28 and the FBM Ace soared 92.75 points to 6,100.87.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index slipped 1.17 points to 3,202.05 while the Plantation Index declined 32.05 points to 7,807.44.

On the broader market, gainers almost doubled losers by 497 to 283, with 304 counters unchanged, 655 counters untraded and 15 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 1.93 billion shares worth RM2.3 billion from 1.77 billion shares worth RM2.49 billion yesterday.

Among the most active counters, Minetech was flat at 10.5 sen, Systech improved 1 sen to 29 sen, Pan Malaysia added 3 sen to 29.5 sen, and Nova MSC went up 1.5 sen to 16 sen.

Of the heavyweights, TNB lost 12 sen to RM14.38, Public Bank was flat at RM17.52, Axiata earned 1 sen to RM7.02 while Sime Darby advanced 8 sen to RM9.34.

Main Market volume improved to 1.28 billion shares worth RM2.08 billion from the 1.21 billion shares worth RM2.28 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market widened to 477.29 million shares valued at RM155.85 million from 435.24 million shares valued at RM150.89 million yesterday.

Warrants increased to 175.72 million units worth RM55.82 million from 153.79 million units worth RM59.29 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 142.13 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 214.45 million, construction 36.88 million, trade and services 537.91 million, technology 50.53 million, infrastructure 17.57 million, SPAC 35.14 million, finance 112.39 million, hotels 16.83 million, properties 83.32 million, plantations 15.54 million, mining 98,700, REITs 15.92 million and closed/fund 97,100. — Bernama