KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — Bursa Malaysia closed broadly higher for a third consecutive day, successfully staying above the key 1,600 level after several attempts previously, as Malaysia’s reopening of international borders from April 1, 2022 boosted buying interest in real estate investment trusts, tourism-related counters and consumer products.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 4.33 points to 1,603.30 from 1,598.97 at Thursday’s close.

The barometer index opened 2.03 points easier at 1,596.63, its intraday low, and hit the day’s high of 1,603.69 just before the session ended.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 592 to 378, while 429 counters were unchanged, 903 untraded, and 44 others suspended.

Total turnover increased to 2.78 billion units valued at RM2.22 billion from 2.71 billion units valued at RM2.11 billion on Thursday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI remained on a consolidation mode as the focus shifted to small and mid-cap stocks.

"On the domestic front, the benchmark index has broken the 1,600 level and we maintain our cautiously optimistic view on the market on foreign funds support and the cheap valuations of the local market against regional peers,” he told Bernama.

Heavyweights, Maybank lost eight sen to RM8.90, IHH Healthcare and Petronas Chemicals fell two sen each to RM6.52 and RM9.60, Tenaga Nasional slipped three sen to RM9.32, while CIMB rose 10 sen to RM5.37.

Of the actives, Dagang NeXchange rose two sen to RM1.06, BSL and Cheetah shed half-a-sen each to 20 sen and 18 sen, respectively, while AHB and Sapura Energy were flat at 16.5 sen and three sen, respectively.

Top gainers, Malaysian Pacific Industries jumped RM1.32 to RM38.90, Nestle gained 60 sen to RM136.60, Box-Pak added 26 sen to RM1.40, Berjaya Food and Sime Darby gained 20 sen each to RM3.60 and RM2.54, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went up 47.53 points to 11,458.29, FBM 70 added 109.25 points to 13,810.67, FBMT 100 Index advanced 43.62 points to 11,143.0, the FBM ACE was 23.09 points better at 5,615.28 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 82.16 points to 12,086.59.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 0.71 of-a-point to 205.19, the Financial Services Index dipped 34.45 points to 16,743.73, and the Plantation Index climbed 48.72 points to 8,083.58.

The Main Market volume inched up to 1.87 billion shares worth RM2.0 billion compared with 1.86 billion shares worth RM1.94 billion on Thursday.

Warrants turnover jumped to 459.41 million units valued at RM76.0 million against 319.28 million units valued at RM53.38 million.

The ACE Market volume dropped to 457.09 million shares worth RM135.29 million versus 524.25 million shares worth RM120.38 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 496.96 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (490.99 billion), construction (90.42 million), technology (218.68 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (59.63 million), property (138.73 million), plantation (56.57 million), REITs (9.51 million), closed/fund (2,000), energy (169.38 million), healthcare (36.62 million), telecommunications and media (25.33 million), transportation and logistics (20.46 million), and utilities (53.76 million). — Bernama