KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — Bursa Malaysia ended higher on the first trading day of the Year of the Goat spurred by light buying in small-capitalised stocks and selected blue chips, dealers said.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 1.52 points better at 1,809.39.

Petronas Chemicals was the top contributor to the composite index, gaining 12 sen to RM5.51, with 4.89 million shares changing hands, after RHB Research upgraded its recommendation from “neutral” to “buy” on the stock.

Other leading movers were Maxis, which gained 12 sen to RM7.20, and CIMB Group, which improved 8 sen to RM5.98, while Petronas Gas chalked up 24 sen to RM22.54.

The bullish sentiment was also in tandem with an upbeat Wall Street on Friday.

A dealer said trading this week could, however, be cautious as the Greek debt deal struck last week remained in the balance until the government drew up a list of reforms to satisfy its creditors.

Many local traders were still on extended holidays for the Lunar festival, he added.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 428 to 382, with 290 counters unchanged, 672 counters untraded and 21 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 2.60 billion shares worth RM2.26 billion from 897.03 million shares worth RM887.37 million last Wednesday.

The market resumed trading today after being closed for the Chinese New Year celebrations on Thursday and Friday.

On other scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index went up 17.76 points to 12,470.26, the FBMT100 Index 19.12 points to 12,145.74 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index 47.00 points to 12,997.96.

The FBM 70 surged 55.75 points to 13,474.20 and the FBM Ace 72.71 points to 6,681.49.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index rose 5.18 points to 3,257.33 and the Plantation Index climbed 21.02 points to 8,105.72, but the Finance Index lost 39.38 points to 15,871.39.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Hubline slipped 1 sen to 2.5 sen, The Media Shoppe gained 0.5 sen to 6.5 sen, Asia Bioenergy added 1.5 sen to 14 sen, R & A Telecommunication was flat at 4.5 sen and Diversified Gateway appreciated 3 sen to 13 sen.

Main Market volume rose to 1.31 billion units worth RM1.64 billion from 483.36 million units worth RM791.99 million on Wednesday.

Turnover on the ACE Market surged to 1.08 billion shares valued at RM1.77 billion from 365.91 million shares valued at RM86.85 million previously.

Warrants expanded to 74.08 million units worth RM17.19 million from 45.15 million units worth RM7.90 million on Wednesday.

Consumer products accounted for 139.77 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 147.02 million, construction 34.95 million, trade and services 744.42 million, technology 96.93 million, infrastructure 11.74 million, SPAC 5.34 million, finance 56.93 million, hotels 1.40 million, properties 59.31 million, plantations 8.17 million, mining 39,000, REITs 4.60 million and closed/fund 39,000. — Bernama