bursa malaysKUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — Bursa Malaysia closed 0.14 per cent higher today as the US-China trade talk had a positive spillover effect on Wall Street and disseminated to other markets.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ended at 1,643.63, 2.3 points higher compared with Thursday’s close of 1,641.33.
The index opened 7.03 points higher at 1,648.36 and moved between 1,639.26 and 1,649.6 throughout the day.
On the scoreboard, market breadth was positive with gainers outnumbering decliners 478 to 337, while 427 counters remained unchanged, 675 were untraded and 79 others were suspended.
Volume increased to 2.47 billion units worth RM2.24 billion compared with 1.93 billion units worth RM1.66 billion on Thursday.
Public Investment Bank Bhd said US markets edged higher as trade talks with China resumed, with reports suggesting Chinese officials had made unprecedented offers regarding forced technology transfers as well as on other major sticking points.
“On its part, the US is saying it is ready to extend talks for weeks, or even months, and that not all tariffs may stay in place as and when a deal is struck,” it said.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and PChem rose one sen each to RM9.27 and RM9.16, respectively, Tenaga improved 14 sen to RM12.66 and CIMB gained four sen to RM5.15, However, PBBank declined 12 sen to RM23.16.
Among actives, Sapura Energy and Berjaya Corporation were flat at 33.5 sen and 27 sen, respectively.
The FBM Emas Index improved 23.47 points to 11,553.84, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 37.6 points to 11,688.06, and FBMT 100 increased 21.38 points to 11,407.35.
The FBM Ace Index expanded 36.23 points to 4,832.15, and the FBM 70 was 48.64 points higher at 14,212.64.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.16 point better at 168.93, the Financial Services Index advanced 31.42 point to 16,969.13 and the Plantation Index was 16.61 points higher at 7,186.11.
Main Market volume increased to 1.68 billion shares worth RM2.07 billion versus 1.2 billion shares worth RM1.5 billion on Thursday.
Warrants rose to 505.03 million units valued at RM106.82 million compared with 458.35 million units valued at RM100.7 million.
Volume on the ACE Market grew to 282.91 million shares worth RM59.35 million from 271.39 million shares worth RM61.08 million.
Consumer products and services accounted for 308.22 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (332.2 million), construction (135.5 million), technology (128.99 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (55 million), property (133.92 million), plantation (21.58 million), REITs (14.7 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (434.15 million), healthcare (41.25 million), telecommunications and media (30.2 million), transportation and logistics (28.44 million), and utilities (20.21 million). — Bernama
