KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 — Bursa Malaysia ended in positive territory with the market bellwether rising 0.8 per cent today, in sync with most regional peers, taking cue from the rally on Wall Street which reached an all-time closing high overnight.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 12.80 points to 1,586.13 compared with 1,573.33 at yesterday’s close.

The index opened 1.34 points higher at 1,574.67 and moved between 1,574.23 and 1,588.96 throughout the day.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the upbeat sentiment today was also driven by oil price which hit 13-month high, helped by rising optimism in demand.

At the time of writing, global benchmark Brent Crude rose 0.4 per cent to US$60.80 (RM246) a barrel while the West Texas Intermediate gained 0.26 per cent to US$58.12 per barrel.

“The moves by governments and central banks to continue massive spending and easing monetary policies until officials are certain that their economies will recover from the coronavirus pandemic have also led to expectations about an increase in inflation which coincides with economic growth,” he told Bernama.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.40 per cent to 29,505.93, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.53 per cent at 29,476.19 while Singapore’s Straits Times Index perked up 0.13 per cent to 2,935.27.

Among the 30 index-linked stocks, gains were seen across the board for banking counters amid anticipation the US stimulus measures which may trickle down to Malaysia’s economy pushed up the Bursa Malaysia Financial services index by 1.3 per cent, making it the biggest winner of the day.

He further added that glove counters continued to take a beating as retailers faced difficulty in sustaining their buying activity after the Bursabets movement was made taking inspiration from what happened to gamestop in the US.

Market breadth was positive with advancers outpacing decliners 585 to 581, while 429 counters were unchanged, 552 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Total volume rose to 7.18 billion units worth RM4.71 billion from 7.04 billion units worth RM4.50 billion recorded at yesterday’s close.

Meanwhile, among the heavyweights, Maybank added 12 sen to RM7.95, PBBank gained six sen to RM4.14, PChem bagged seven sen to RM7.56, Tenaga rose three sen to RM9.70 but Topglove shed seven sen to RM6.20.

Of the actives, DNEX and its warrant both lost one sen to 36 sen and 5.5 sen respectively, IRIS climbed two sen to 38.5 sen, Opcom surged 22.5 sen to 78 sen, while EAH and SAPNRG were both flat at 3.5 sen and 12.5 sen, respectively.

Among top gainers, MPI jumped 76 sen to RM36.90, PMetal rose 41 sen to RM8.65 and PetDag advanced 30 sen to RM19.64.

Hartalega topped the losers list, erasing 34 sen to RM12.46, followed by UWC which dipped 28 sen to RM12.60, while Seehup shed 25 sen to RM1.57.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 80.30 points to 11,559.69, the FBMT 100 Index went up 85.29 points to 11,284.81, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 41.34 points better at 13,054.77.

The FBM 70 put on 91.94 points to 15,141.28 and FBM ACE increased 43.29 points to 10,814.99.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index soared 187.34 points to 14,752.74, the Plantation Index improved 24.99 points to 7,147.72, while the Industrial Products and Services Index perked up 1.84 points to 179.90.

The Main Market volume improved to 4.69 billion shares worth RM3.69 billion from 4.53 billion shares worth RM3.57 billion recorded at yesterday’s close.

Warrants turnover fell to 303.11 million units valued at RM53.0 million from 410.74 million units valued at RM69.8 million.

Volume on the ACE Market improved slightly to 2.19 billion shares worth RM964.88 million from 2.10 billion shares worth RM864.58 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 592.46 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (892.4 million), construction (148.19 million), technology (1.48 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (136.49 million), property (200.0 million), plantations (60.68 million), REITs (9.54 million), closed/fund (19,000), energy (789.54 million), healthcare (64.69 million), telecommunications and media (103.71 million), transportation and logistics (187.16 million), and utilities (26.36 million). — Bernama