KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — Bursa Malaysia rallied today to close at the day’s high despite news of impending haze due to forest fires in Kalimantan.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 16.37 points or 1.06 per cent to end the day at 1,552.65 from Thursday’s close of 1,536.28.

The index opened 7.2 points stronger at 1,543.48 and fell as low as 1,538.16 during the day.

Overall market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 667 to 355, while 418 counters were unchanged, 474 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Total volume increased to 6.72 billion shares worth RM3.81 billion from Thursday’s 5.9 billion shares worth RM4.02 billion.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei edged up 0.25 per cent to 22,201.27, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.84 per cent to 25,336.08, Singapore’s Straits Times Index improved 0.63 per cent to 2,653.19, and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index rose 0.49 per cent to 4,991.09.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank climbed nine sen to RM7.71, Tenaga rose 20 sen to 11.76, Public Bank gained 12 sen to RM17.06, Petronas Chemicals added 13 sen to RM6.68, and Hartalega was RM1.00 higher at RM16.00.

Of the most actives, Sanichi and Eduspec rose half a sen each to nine sen and two sen, respectively, Vivocom Intl’s warrants added one sen to two sen, and Vivocom Intl and PDZ were flat at 3.5 sen and seven sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 112.25 points to 10,908.03 the FBMT 100 Index surged 110.21 points to 10,760.57 and the FBM 70 lifted 123.55 points to 13,327.7.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 155.89 points higher at 12,482.38 and the FBM ACE jumped 140.05 points to 6,740.81.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 2.4 points to 140.17, the Financial Services Index advanced 118.93 points to 13,078.05 and the Plantation Index lost 15.78 points to 6,813.35.

Main Market volume widened to 3.37 billion shares worth RM3.06 billion from 2.98 billion shares worth RM3.34 billion on Thursday.

Warrants turnover shrank to 495.4 million units valued at RM159.26 million versus 615.89 million units valued at RM189.26 million previously.

Volume on the ACE Market expanded to 2.85 billion shares worth RM589.32 million from 2.3 billion shares worth RM489.32 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 398.85 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (1.03 billion), construction (282.6 million), technology (405.56 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (53.38 million), property (200.00 million), plantations (30.81 million), REITs (7.08 million), closed/fund (25,000), energy (489.54 million), healthcare (83.23 million), telecommunications and media (60.64 million), transportation and logistics (294.6 million), and utilities (38.73 million). — Bernama