KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia finished on a firm note today on strong trading in selected heavyweights and blue chips.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI ended 9.7 points better at 1,797.57, after moving between 1,787.77 and 1,800.83 throughout the day. 

A dealer said the local market and its regional peers were cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates.

Regionally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 218.59 points to 24,120.08 and Japan's Nikkei expanded 107.48 points to 19,544.48.

Singapore's STI Index was 8.20 points lower at 3,361.75.

Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.16 and Public Bank advanced 10 sen to RM18.50.

TNB fell two sen to RM14.66 and Axiata was one sen lower to RM7.02.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Wintoni fell 9.5 sen to 28.5 sen and The Media Shoppe eased half-a-sen to 6.5 sen.

YFG added 5.5 sen to 12.5 sen. Ingenuity was flat at 7.5 sen.

On the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers by 533 to 303 with 288 counters unchanged, 651 untraded and 20 others suspended.

Total volume decreased to 2.13 billion shares worth RM1.87 from 2.49 billion shares worth RM1.84 billion yesterday.     

The FBM Emas Index increased by 44.71 points to 12,336.28, FBMT100 Index rose by 48.92 points to 12,031.63 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 33.57 points higher at 12,916.60.

The FBM Ace declined by 152.86 points to 6,849.93 and the FBM 70 fell 7.55 points to 13,214.66.

On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index was up by 21.46 points to 3,305.33 and the Plantation Index inched up 4.12 points to 7,732.84.

The Finance Index was 7.34 points lower at 15,905.19.

Main Market volume decreased to 1.10 billion units worth RM1.70 billion from 1.51 billion units worth RM1.62 billion yesterday.   

Turnover on the ACE Market rose to 900.37 million shares valued at RM170.80 million from 886.35 million shares valued at RM197.90 million yesterday.            

Warrants increased to 127.86 million units worth RM42.84 million from 87.76 million units worth RM18.71 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 117.44 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (182.52 million), construction (53.15 million), trade and services (491.64 million), technology (87.54 million), infrastructure (13.53 million), SPAC (18.50 million), finance (33.85 million), hotels (9.06 million), properties (75.33 million), plantations (9.12 million), mining (60,000), REITs (7.14 million) and closed/fund (3,000). — Bernama