KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 — Bursa Malaysia closed higher today on renewed buying on the back of market optimism, rising oil prices and an upbeat overnight performance on Wall Street.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 8.11 points or 0.47 per cent, to 1,723.11 from its close yesterday of 1,715.00 after opening 4.47 points higher at 1,719.47.

Market breadth was positive, with gainers outpacing losers 467 to 390, while 369 counters were unchanged, 495 untraded and 17 others were suspended.

Total volume was up to 1.85 billion shares worth RM2.06 billion from 1.61 billion shares worth RM1.46 billion yesterday.

Dealers said the market hailed the remarks today of Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan that he was optimistic the uptrend on the equity market would be sustained for the rest of this year.

Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan said the optimism was based on the strong fundamentals of the local market, improvement in oil prices, the performance of the ringgit, strong gross domestic product growth projection, and rising international reserves.

“I believe that it will go up consistently based on the core fundamentals,” he was quoted as saying at the Invest Malaysia forum here.

A senior dealer said positive sentiment today emerged after the US Dow Jones industrial average ended 0.94 per cent higher at 17,721.25 overnight.

“International benchmark Brent crude oil and US crude futures also hold firm above US$40 per barrel, a key technical breakthrough that could signal a further rally and will have positive influence on our market,” he added.

Petronas Chemicals was the top contributor to the index gain, adding 8 sen to RM6.76 with 7.34 million shares traded.

Other leading movers were Hong Leong Financial, which surged 40 sen to RM15.60. IOI Corp was up 6 sen to RM4.53 and Maxis Bhd rose 5 sen to RM6.07.

Among active stocks, Green Packet perked 1.5 sen to 27 sen, Sumatec and its Warrant (B) both added 0.5 sen to 13.5 sen and 6.5 sen respectively. Vivocom was flat at 32.5 sen and AirAsia gained 8 sen to RM2.10.

The FBM Emas Index rose 38.10 points to 11,965.68, the FBMT100 Index increased 38.56 points to 11,659.14 and FBM Emas Syariah Index gained 39.38 points to 12,529.69. The FBM 70 fell 14.52 points to 13,283.48 and the FBM Ace eased 4.22 points to 5,748.16.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index went up 68.48 points to 14,941.93, the Industrial Index added 12.77 points to 3,277.24 and the Plantation Index rose 39.03 points to 7,809.03.

Main Market turnover swelled to 1.35 billion units worth RM1.98 billion from the 1.02 billion units worth RM1.36 billion yesterday.

The ACE Market turnover shrank to 268.70 million shares valued at RM54.60 million from 394.74 million shares valued at RM68.02 million yesterday.

Warrants rose 229.91 million units worth RM33.99 million from 187.34 million units worth RM23.61 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 76.50 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (284.14 million), construction (78.05 million), trade and services (601.26 million), technology (106.80 million), infrastructure (7.88 million), SPAC (43.66 million), finance (55.28 million), hotels (730,000), properties (67.92 million), plantations (18.91 million), mining (0), REITs (6.60 million), and closed/fund (29,500). — Bernama