KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 ― Bursa Malaysia finished marginally higher today, supported by buying in selected blue chips led by plantation stocks.     

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 1.94 points higher to 1,673.48 points from its close of 1,671.54 on Tuesday.

After opening 1.14 points weaker at 1,670.4 in the morning session, sentiments improved towards mid-day with more buyers wading into the market.

The FBM KLCI moved within an 11.08-point range at between 1,667.68 and 1,678.76.

On the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 537 to 315 with 339 counters unchanged, 494 counters untraded and 16 others suspended.

“That gave a market breadth of 1.70, indicating the bulls have started to gain control,” said one local dealer.

Another dealer said the upbeat overnight performance on Wall Street had prompted buyers to enter the market.

Among top gainers were plantation stocks as the market expects this sector to be the top beneficiary of the unfavourable weather.

“Although many players were still on their extended holiday, season investors have started wading into selective value-buy blue chips in plantation, telecommunication and banking stocks,” the dealer said.

Among the major index-linked stock advancers was IOI Corporation, which chalked up 14 sen to RM4.55 with 7.52 million shares traded, contributing 1.537 points to the index.

Other buying support came from Sime Darby which gained 13 sen to RM9.04, and Axiata and Astro jumped seven sen each to RM4.80 and RM2.79, respectively, while Digi.com rose five sen to RM5.01.

Total volume rose to 1.82 billion shares worth RM2.30 billion from 1.16 billion shares worth RM1.61 billion on Tuesday.

The market resumed trading today after being closed for the Federal Territory holiday yesterday.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 26.00 points to 11,767.29, the FBMT100 Index added 21.61 points to 11,462.28 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 49.24 points to 12,276.83.

The FBM Ace rose 78.43 points to 5,020.21 and the FBM 70 climbed 57.33 points to 13,570.78.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index soared 114.89 points to 8,034.49, the Finance Index fell 42.26 points to 14,758.56 and the Industrial Index eased 4.40 points to 3,198.49.

Actively traded stocks included Hibiscus which added 3.5 sen to 50.5 sen, IFCA MSC was up five sen to 43 sen, Icon Offshore shed half-a-sen to 45.5 sen, while AirAsia dipped one sen to RM2.54.

United Plantation led the top gainers, adding 50 sen to RM28.00, while the top loser was British American Tobacco, which fell 30 sen to RM46.04.

Main Market turnover expanded to 1.37 billion units worth RM2.22 billion from Tuesday's 802.86 million units worth RM1.56 billion.

The ACE Market increased to 264.74 million shares valued at RM62.71 million from 215.99 million shares valued at RM30.79 million.

Warrants improved to 185.48 million units worth RM24.56 million from 133.70 million units worth RM13.38 million.

Consumer products accounted for 99.46 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (401.07 million), construction (85.33 million), trade and services (502.68 million), technology (68.36 million), infrastructure (14.50 million), SPAC (1.27 million), finance (64.04 million), hotels (10,600), properties (78.22 million), plantations (33.54 million), mining (11,000), REITs (22.88 million), and closed/fund (14,000). ― Bernama