KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 — Persistence buying in most heavyweights lifted the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to finish at an intra-day high today, dealers said.

The index closed 16.07 points better at 1,670.82 points from 1,654.75 points yesterday. It opened 3.67 points higher at 1,658.42.

Genting and Petronas Dagangan emerged among the day’s top gainers, rising 34 sen and 28 sen each to RM8.22 and RM24.98 respectively.

A dealer said the positive momentum on the local bourse was in line with most regional peers, benefiting from China’s move to boost bank lending, which offset weak factory data.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 94.13 points higher at 11,596.10, the FBMT100 Index rose 94.24 points to 11,302.17 and the FBM Emas Shariah advanced 75.41 points to 12,324.65. The FBM 70 gained 54.92 points for 12,865.49 but the FBM Ace fell 32.01 points to 5,670.02.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index improved 31.87 points to 3,251.49, the Finance Index surged 121.50 points to 14,140.12 and the Plantation Index increased 30.39 points to 7,821.50.

There were 476 gainers and 405 losers while 311 counters were unchanged, 541 untraded and 10 others were suspended.

Volume was slightly lower at 1.67 billion shares, worth RM1.65 billion, from 1.69 billion shares, valued at RM2.31 billion, traded yesterday.

Among heavyweights, Maybank jumped 13 sen to RM8.64, TNB and Public Bank rose 4 sen each to RM13.16 and RM18.52 respectively, while Petronas Chemicals gained 5 sen to RM6.80.

Of actives, AirAsia X perked 1.5 sen to 26.5 sen, AirAsia increased 10 sen to RM1.57 while Hubline and Borneo Oil were both flat at 1 sen and 14.5 sen respectively.

Main Market volume rose to 1.17 billion units, valued at RM1.55 billion, from yesterday’s 1.10 billion units worth RM2.21 billion.

Turnover on the ACE Market fell to 189.33 million shares, worth RM56.54 million, against 380.52 million shares, valued at RM56.44 million, transacted yesterday.

Warrants widened to 211.48 million units, valued at RM38.88 million, from 196.93 million units, worth RM36.50 million, traded yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 114.16 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (186.23 million), construction (22.73 million), trade and services (628.48 million), technology (21.56 million), infrastructure (9.70 million), SPAC (23.04 million), finance (42.15 million), hotels (1.04 million), properties (85.22 million), plantations (24.26 million), mining (5,000), REITs (12.34 million) and closed/fund (nil). — Bernama