KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 — Bursa Malaysia closed firmer today on the back of buying support in selected heavyweights and trade/service counters such as Maxis, Genting Malaysia and MISC.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI), which opened 1.21 points easier at 1,668.77, finished at 1,677.76, up 7.78 points or 0.466 per cent, from Friday’s close of 1,669.98.

It moved between 1,667.55 and 1,679.11 throughout the day.

Maxis rose 20 sen to RM6.20 while Genting Malaysia improved 14 sen to RM4.85 and MISC bagged 11 sen to RM7.61.

Mercury Securities Head of Research Edmund Tham said the higher local market sentiment was in line with regional peers, with South Korea’s benchmark Kospi gaining 0.73 per cent to 2,047.74 while Singapore’s Straits Times was 0.70 per cent higher at 2,850.99 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.92 per cent to 23,588.96.

“The stronger Malaysia equity market was due to the positive Budget 2017 announcement over the special RM3 billion allocation to fund managers.

“It was also supported by the steady movement of the ringgit which at the moment is being quoted at 4.1720,” he told Bernama.

He said going forward the market would refocus on external developments such as the US presidential election.

“On the local front, the release of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data on November 11, 2016, is crucial to determine whether growth has bottomed and another overnight policy rate cut is needed.

“We expect a pick-up in the third quarter of 2016 GDP growth to 4.2 per cent with Bank Negara staying pat,” Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) said in a note.

The research firm said it still expects the FBM KLCI to move higher towards year-end (end-2016 target: 1,730) on improved domestic data amid a strong tendency for a year-end rally.

Losers outpaced gainers 407 to 378, while 376 counters were unchanged, 507 untraded and 19 others suspended. Volume rose to 1.64 billion units worth RM1.69 billion from 1.44 billion units worth RM2.05 billion on Friday.

Among heavyweights, TNB and Public Bank added two sen each to RM14.34 and RM19.82 respectively, Maybank gained four sen to RM7.73 while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM6.98.

Petronas Gas expanded 36 sen to RM22.10 and Digi went up six sen to RM5.01.

Of the gainers, BAT rose 44 sen to RM50.24, Dutch Lady increased 38 sen to RM60.18 and Ajinomoto bagged 26 sen to RM13.76.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index added 35.87 points to 11,845.99, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 33.41 points to 12,475.78, the FBMT100 Index rose 34.29 points to 11,544.02 and the FBM Ace was 9.46 points higher at 5,134.32, but the FBM 70 eased 28.29 points to 13,850.81.

On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index decreased 14.52 points to 7,946.84, but the Industrial Index gained 21.51 points to 3,164.31 and the Finance Index surged 55.97 points to 14,485.31. Main Market turnover fell to 948.32 million units worth RM1.56 billion, from 1.11 billion units worth RM2.00 billion on Friday.

The ACE Market volume went up to 422.99 million shares valued at RM78.58 million, from 152.16 million shares valued at RM22.80 million previously.

Warrants improved to 260.95 million units worth RM51.62 million, from 172.94 million units worth RM24.69 million on Friday.

Consumer products accounted for 74.35 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (288.17 million), construction (53.86 million), trade and services (313.11 million), technology (30.88 million), infrastructure (18.83 million), SPAC (37.51 million), finance (56.00 million), hotels (107,700), properties (48.41 million), plantations (18.03 million), mining (10,000), REITs (8.92 million) and closed/fund (104,900). — Bernama