KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — Last-minute buying in glove counters, TM, Maxis, Genting and Supermax counters helped Bursa Malaysia to end slightly higher today.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) inched up 1.01 points to close at 1,624.97 versus Tuesday’s close of 1,623.96.

The index opened 1.65 points higher at 1,625.61 and fluctuated between 1,616.19 and 1,625.67 throughout the day.

On the broader market, gainers surpassed losers 624 to 513, while 441 counters were unchanged, 659 untraded and nine others suspended.

Total volume rose to 12.67 billion shares worth RM4.77 billion from Tuesday’s 11.88 billion shares worth RM5.56 billion.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said regional markets appeared to be mixed as investors waited to see if the United States (US) Federal Reserve would signal a faster path towards policy normalisation during its Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

“Aside from that, investors also weighed economic data which showed that Americans have cut back on spending in February partly due to bad weather in parts of the country that kept shoppers away from stores, and the fact that December 2020 and January 2021 stimulus payments are running out,” he told Bernama.

Sector-wise, the transportation and logistics sector was the largest gainer today, growing by 2.2 per cent; while the financial services declined 0.7 per cent due to profit-taking.

The glove counters recorded hefty gains following the move by Germany, France and other European countries to suspend the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine; a move which could sustain the need for the gloves in the region, Adam added. 

Of the heavyweights, TM increased 24 sen or four per cent to RM6.40, Maxis gained eight sen to RM4.69, Genting added 18 sen to RM5.30 and Supermax was 25 sen or six per cent stronger at RM4.35.

Digi rose six sen to RM3.72 and Top Glove went up 14 sen to RM5.38.

In contrast, Public Bank lost seven sen to RM4.24 and Maybank was 10 sen weaker at RM8.35.

Top active counter Pegasus was flat at three sen, though it recorded 1.38 billion transactions, fluctuating between 2.5 sen and 3.5 sen throughout the day.

Meanwhile, Scomi declined 5.5 sen to 5.5 sen, Borneo Oil increased half-a-sen to four sen and Barakah was two sen higher at 9.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index expanded 21.97 points to 11,923.64, the FBMT 100 improved 14.16 points to 11,598.41, and the FBM Emas Shariah recovered 66.18 points to 13,246.15.

The FBM 70 was 46.15 points higher at 15,706.70 and the FBM ACE slipped 144.86 points to 10,602.19.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index eased 103.01 points to 15,499.96, the Plantation Index inched down 29.68 points to 7,200.59, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.16 of-a-point to 191.83.

Main Market volume soared to 9.43 billion shares worth RM4.02 billion versus 8.14 billion shares worth RM4.3 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover dipped to 294.75 million units worth RM50.02 million from 343.66 million units worth RM56.85 million yesterday.

Volume on the ACE Market decreased to 2.95 billion shares worth RM695.23 million from 3.39 billion shares worth RM1.24 billion previously. 

Consumer products and services accounted for 1.12 billion shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (2.46 billion), construction (308.75 million), technology (704.76 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (84.03 million), property (1.87 billion), plantations (46.24 million), REITs (12.14 million), closed/fund (8,000), energy (2.24 billion), healthcare (93.60 million), telecommunications and media (97.79 million), transportation and logistics (328.97 million), and utilities (47.55 million). — Bernama