KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia closed higher today, lifted by gains in selected finance heavyweight counters.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.62 points to 1,726.86 after moving between 1,721.23 and 1,728.6 throughout the day.

Gainers led losers 405 to 342, with 323 counters unchanged, 743 counters untraded and 12 others suspended.

Total volume declined to 1.48 billion units worth RM1.74 billion from Tuesday’s 1.53 billion units worth RM1.53 billion.

Leading movers in the FBM KLCI component stocks were CIMB, which improved 18 sen to RM5.53, Genting Bhd advanced 21 sen to RM8.40, SapuraKencana rose 11 sen to RM2.51, Maybank added five sen to RM9.20, and Genting Malaysia gained three sen to RM4.24.

A dealer said key stock indexes in Malaysia performed modestly in line with other Southeast Asian stock markets, which mostly gained on Wednesday, as investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s view on interest rate later today.

Affin Hwang Capital said the markets advanced as investors speculate that Fed would not rush to increase rate amid uncertainty in Greece’s future in euro zone.

Among actively-traded stocks, VSolar added one sen to 15 sen and Minetech edged up half-a-sen to eight sen, while AirAsia Bhd lost 11 sen to RM1.53.

IFCA MSC and AirAsia X were flat at RM1.06 and 20.5 sen, respectively.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index increased 25.48 points to 11,924.80, the FBMT100 Index rose 26.51 points to 11,623.37, the FBM Ace improved 48.30 points to 6,122.52, and the FBM 70 advanced 12.14 points to 13,015.93, while the FBM Emas Syariah Index declined 10.70 points to 12,408.74.

The Finance Index jumped 77.02 points to 15,544.80, the Industrial Index added 1.38 points to 3,179.36, while the Plantation Index fell 20.52 points to 7,247.61.

Main Market volume increased to 980.83 million shares worth RM1.59 billion from 891.32 million shares worth RM1.30 billion on Tuesday.

Turnover on the ACE Market decreased to 335.65 million units valued at RM104.92 million from 474.63 million units valued at RM185.27 million.

Warrants depreciated to 157.76 million shares worth RM41.85 million from 159.44 million shares worth RM43.71 million.

Consumer products accounted for 68.25 million shares traded on the main market, industrial products (165.03 million), construction (29.27 million), trade and services (549.87 million), technology (39.49 million), infrastructure (10.76 million), SPAC (5.08 million), finance (42.95 million), hotels (835,300), properties (47.11 million), plantations (15.02 million), mining (6,200), REITs (7.10 million), and closed/fund (42,100). — Bernama