KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — Bursa Malaysia ended the week today on a mixed note with the barometer index lifted marginally higher by late bargain hunting in selected heavyweights, led by the telecommunications and media sector, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) edged up 0.40 of-a-point to 1,531.73 from Wednesday’s close of 1,531.33.

Maxis Bhd gained 12 sen to RM4.70 and Digi.Com Bhd added 10 sen to RM4.30, lifting the key index by a combined 3.06 points.

The FBM KLCI opened 4.44 points higher at 1,535.77 and fluctuated between 1,525.45 and 1,540.61 throughout the trading session.

The market was closed on Thursday for Deepavali.

However, the broader market was negative as decliners outpaced gainers 582 to 441, while 446 counters were unchanged, 822 untraded, and 31 others suspended.

Turnover slipped to 3.15 billion units valued at RM2.32 billion from Wednesday’s 3.42 billion units valued at RM2.35 billion.

A dealer said Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, taking cue from the stronger overnight Nasdaq performance, as investors mulled the United States Federal Reserve’s decision to begin tapering asset purchases later this month.

He said the market turned lower at mid-morning as investors off-loaded heavyweight stocks, but ended marginally higher on last-minute buying support.

The market also saw technology stock Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd (MPI) as the top gainer today, rising 98 sen to RM48.98, he noted.

“However, the local bourse’s upside potential was seen still limited by market sentiment brought on by the Budget 2022 prosperity tax and stamp duty changes, which continued to be unfavourable to investors,” he said.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng told Bernama despite rebounding on last-minute buying, the FBM KLCI remained in consolidation mode amid a lacklustre trading day.

“The performance was in line with key regional markets which ended mostly lower as selldown on China and Hong Kong property stocks dampened investor sentiment,” he said.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.61 per cent to 29,611.74, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.41 per cent to 24,870.51, South Korea’s Kospi shaved off 0.47 per cent to 2,969.27, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index improved 0.60 per cent to 3,238.90.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM8.01, IHH Healthcare bagged six sen to RM6.58 and Tenaga increased three sen to RM9.61, while Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals reduced one sen each to RM4.03 and RM8.30 respectively.

Of the actives, NWP Holdings perked up two sen to 32 sen, KNM and Scope Industries rose 1.5 sen each to 21 sen and 40 sen respectively, ARBB slipped seven sen to 20 sen, and Alam Maritim shed 1.5 sen to three sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 5.62 points to 11,364.13, the FBMT 100 Index gained 6.17 points to 10,990.93, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 12.09 points to 12,411.74, the FBM 70 rose 21.31 points to 15,112.52, and the FBM ACE advanced 50.53 points to 7,124.49.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.49 of-a-point to 202.56, the Plantation Index gave up 61.93 points to 6,726.57, and the Financial Services Index fell 20.21 points to 15,166.88.

The Main Market volume declined to 2.15 billion shares worth RM1.97 billion from 2.29 billion shares worth RM2.0 billion on Wednesday.

Warrants turnover decreased to 241.21 million units worth RM43.46 million versus 264.64 million units worth RM42.79 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market shrank to 752.96 million shares valued at RM310.93 million from Wednesday’s 856.90 million shares valued at RM313.42 million.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 226.68 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (708.53 million), construction (122.21 million), technology (378.23 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (61.87 million), property (166.28 million), plantation (22.58 million), REITs (3.92 million), closed/fund (8,400), energy (332.13 million), healthcare (46.57 million), telecommunications and media (21.67 million), transportation and logistics (48.82 million), and utilities (14.56 million). — Bernama