KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — Late buying in utilities and plantation counters has pushed Bursa Malaysia to end at an intra-day high today, in line with the recovery in most Asian markets, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) jumped 18.19 points or 1.16 per cent to 1,589.05 from Thursday’s close of 1,570.86.

The index opened 0.23 of-a-point better at 1,571.09 today and also moved to as low as 1,565.74 throughout the day.

Market breadth was positive with gainers thumping losers 563 to 456, while 452 counters were unchanged, 726 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Turnover rose to 6.31 billion units worth RM4.77 billion from 4.26 billion units worth RM2.74 billion yesterday.

TNB and Sime Darby Plantation were among the top contributors to the benchmark index’s upturn after rising 49 sen and 29 sen each to RM10.44 and RM4.40.

A dealer said the local market reacted positively from the latest discussion between Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on Thursday in efforts to revive Malaysia-Egypt bilateral relations and cooperation, especially in the political and economic context.

In a statement today Muhyiddin said the discussion, which was held for the first time via a video conference, also touched on issues of mutual interest, especially in fostering greater cooperation in economy, trade, education, tourism and infrastructure development.

Egypt is Malaysia’s largest trading partner in the North African region with a trade value of RM2.06 billion last year, Muhyiddin said.

As one of the largest importers of Malaysian palm oil in Africa, he said the platform was also used to encourage Egypt to not only continue to import the commodity from this country but also increase imports in future.

Another dealer said most of the local market also seemed to gain momentum following news reports that the government is looking at the possibility of introducing new initiatives that can further mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on both the people and businesses.

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said on Thursday that these initiatives would be rolled out throughout the entire duration of the country’s National Recovery Plan (NRP) where necessary.

"We do have several relief measures in the pipeline that we cannot reveal right now. These initiatives will be announced when we reach the final phase of the NRP,” he said.

In the meantime, heavyweights Maybank was 3.0 sen higher at RM8.20, Public Bank went up 1.0 sen to RM4.20, IHH Healthcare added 18 sen to RM5.86, but Petronas Chemicals slipped 8.0 sen to RM8.00 and CIMB Group declined 3.0 sen to RM4.60.

Of the actives, Fintec and Vsolar earned half-a-sen each to 3.5 sen and 2.0 sen respectively, while MMAG eased half-a-sen to 18.5 sen and Euro Holdings shed 11 sen to RM1.10.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 99.06 points to 11,584.94, the FBMT 100 Index surged 102.60 points to 11,276.33, and the FBM ACE went down 131.61 points to 7,707.70.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index soared 164.16 points to 12,778.22, while the FBM 70 added 33.64 points to 15,016.60.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index perked 19.34 points to 15,313.70, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.22 of-a-point to 192.01 and the Plantation Index gained 138.55 points to 6,681.55.

Main Market volume rose to 3.27 billion shares worth RM4.13 billion from 2.76 billion shares worth RM2.3 billion at Thursday’s close.

Warrants turnover went up to 268.13 million units valued at RM26.98 million from 220.23 million units valued at RM26.1 million yesterday.

Volume on the Ace Market expanded to 2.77 billion shares worth RM613.63 million versus 1.27 billion shares worth RM418.02 million previously.

Consumer products and services accounted for 784.49 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (814.14 million), construction (88.51 million), technology (393.25 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (114.23 million), property (210.09 million), plantation (65.36 million), REITs (7.27 million), closed/fund (30,900), energy (456.09 million), healthcare (108.98 million), telecommunications and media (104.57 million), transportation and logistics (83.79 million) and utilities (39.90 million). — Bernama