KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — Bursa Malaysia, which was in positive territory for most part of the day, closed higher today driven by gains in most blue chip finance stocks and selective heavyweights.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended at 1,787.95, up 11.00 points, from yesterday’s close of 1,776.95.

After opening 0.42 of-a-point higher at 1,777.37, the index moved in a 15.21-point range, hitting an intraday high of 1,790.23 and and an intraday low of 1,775.02.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 542 to 384, with 351 counters unchanged, 501 counters untraded and 30 others suspended. Volume increased to 2.48 billion units valued at RM2.64 billion from the 2.45 billion units valued at RM2.57 billion recorded on Friday.

A dealer said the upbeat performance on Wall Street and regional markets, as well as expectations of local corporate earnings recovery and satisfactory first-quarter 2017 earnings, had attracted buyers.

“Investors are accumulating blue chips in finance sector and selective value-buy industrial products, trade and services sectors given improving fundamentals and receding external geopolitical risks. Foreign funds buying was also seen,” he added.

Of heavyweights, Maybank advanced six sen to RM9.59, CIMB bagged 14 sen to RM6.75, Public Bank rose 18 sen to RM20.30, Hong Leong Bank gained 52 sen to RM15.20, Hong Leong Financial Group jumped 80 sen to RM17.90, Petronas Gas added 44 sen to RM19.44, while TNB added two sen to RM13.82.

Among actives, Vivocom slipped 1.5 sen to 11.5 sen, XingQuan declined 2.5 sen to 2.0 sen, AirAsia X was flat at 42.5 sen, and DNEX eased 1.5 sen to 59.5 sen while Inta Bina gained 3.5 sen to 34.5 sen.

KESM led the list of top gainers, adding 92 sen to RM14.86, while the top loser was Danainfra (Bond) which fell 30 sen to RM99.00.

The FBM Emas Index was 69.04 points higher at 12,751.30, the FBMT 100 Index gained 65.95 points to 12,391.28 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 39.04 points to 12,933.39.

The FBM 70 gained 42.43 points to 15,221.14, but the FBM Ace declined 60.34 points to 6,292.14.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index soared 191.01 points to 16,894.88, the Industrial Index edged up 11.26 points to 3,311.84, while the Plantation Index climbed 3.20 points to 7,959.18.

Main market turnover decreased to 1.56 billion units worth RM2.47 billion from 1.62 billion units worth RM2.43 billion recorded on Friday.

Volume on the ACE Market improved to 559.32 million units valued at RM115.15 million from 494.59 million units valued at RM96.03 million.

Warrants rose to 332.06 million units worth RM37.43 million from 283.92 million units worth RM36.85 million previously.

Consumer products accounted for 168.52 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (353.87 million), construction (109.44 million), trade and services (535.78 million), technology (74.19 million), infrastructure (5.22 million), SPAC (2.14 million), finance (130.10 million), hotels (615,500), properties (137.65 million), plantations (26.36 million), mining (14,700), REITs (13.70 million), and closed/fund (8,000). — Bernama