KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — Bursa Malaysia ended almost unchanged today as news on the revival of the Bandar Malaysia mega project last Friday drove optimism in the market with buying support mainly seen in construction and building materials counters, dealers said. 

At the close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell slightly by 0.001 per cent or 0.01 of-a-point to 1,622.06 from Friday’s close of 1,622.07. 

After opening 0.49 of-a-point firmer at 1,622.56, the local index moved between 1,621.16 and 1,630.91 throughout the session.

Market breadth was positive with 621 gainers and 322 losers, while 361 counters were unchanged, 610 untraded and 38 others suspended.

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Volume ballooned to 4.77 billion units worth RM3.18 billion against last Friday’s 2.52 billion units worth RM1.69 billion.  

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of research Kenny Yee said although the FBM KLCI was slightly down possibly due to foreign funds outflow and profit-taking in some oil and gas counters including Petronas Chemicals and Petronas Dagangan, the focus of the day remained on the Bandar Malaysia project. 

“With the revival of this project, it could be the starting point of reviving other infrastructure projects.

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“There will be more tenders worth billions of ringgit coming up, and we will see more industry players waiting to get a piece of their share soon, thus boosting the local stock market,” he told Bernama. 

IWH-CREC Sdn Bhd, the project’s master developer, had been chosen to take up a 60 per cent stake in Bandar Malaysia via an open tender exercise.

Shares of Iskandar Waterfront City (IWCity) today hit limit-up at the opening bell at RM1.32, gaining 30 sen or 29.41 per cent, its highest since March 2018. The counter remained limit-up throughout the day, with some 15.35 million shares traded.

IWH owns a 37.72 per cent stake in IWCity.

The most actively-traded stock, Ekovest hit limit-up at closing, soaring 44.78 per cent or 30 sen to 97 sen with 282.02 million shares changing hands.

Property tycoon Tan Sri Lim Kang Hoo is a common major shareholder in Ekovest and IWCity.

Other actively-traded stocks, Bumi Armada added 1.5 sen to 20.5 sen and Econpile increased 14.5 sen to 73 sen. 

Meanwhile, among heavyweights, Maybank rose six sen to RM9.15, Public Bank improved two sen to RM22.54, Petronas Chemicals fell five sen to RM8.90, Tenaga put on two sen to RM12.16 and IHH dropped four sen to RM5.52. 

Top gainers, Tasek was up 66 sen to RM5.81, Guan Chong gained 38 sen to RM4.08 and DWL rose 37 sen to RM1.68. 

The FBM Emas Index bagged 60.14 points to 11,557.38, the FBMT100 increased 44.22 points to 11,369.10 and the FBM 70 surged 235.03 points to 14,617.54.  

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 59.87 points higher at 11,749.89 and the FBM Ace Index strengthened 22.34 points to 4,715.19.  

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index went up 66.27 points to 16,811.54 but the Plantation Index eased 20.36 points to 7,208.55, while the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 0.69 of-a-point to 168.99.

Main Market volume jumped to 3.97 million shares worth RM3.04 billion against 1.86 million shares worth RM1.57 billion on Friday.   

Warrants turnover expanded to 325.69 million units valued at RM41.06 million from 200.79 million units valued at RM22.43 million.

Volume on the ACE Market advanced to 468.08 million shares worth RM91.89 million versus 465.19 million shares worth RM90.72 million on Friday.

Consumer products and services accounted for 262.51 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (455.66 million), construction (1.70 billion), technology (170.33 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (49.33 million), property (344.53 million), plantation (51.36 million), REITs (10.71 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (787.69 million), healthcare (35.08 million), telecommunications and media (30.10 million), transportation and logistics (41.10 million), and utilities (33.40 million). — Bernama