KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — Bursa Malaysia ended at its intraday high today, thanks to bargain hunting and in line with improving sentiment across the region, spurred by an upbeat performance on Wall Street last Friday, analysts said.

At 5pm, the barometer index rose 11.10 points or 0.78 per cent to 1,429.54 from last Friday’s close of 1,418.44.

The index, which opened 2.45 points higher at 1,420.89, hit a low of 1,416.71 during the mid-morning session before gaining momentum from the start of the afternoon session towards the end of trading.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 517 to 334, while 382 counters were unchanged, 1,054 untraded, and 20 others suspended.

Total turnover was higher at 2.40 billion units worth RM1.28 billion against 2.05 billion units valued at RM1.06 billion last Friday.

The local market succumbed to selling pressure last week due to lack of buying catalyst amid lacklustre trading, which prompted bargain hunters to emerge today as the market remained in an oversold position.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices closed broadly higher tracking Wall Street’s rebound on Friday as fairly encouraging economic data from the United States and upbeat earnings updates from some top companies helped to lift sentiment.

"As for the local bourse, we are cautiously optimistic given the improvement in regional market sentiment.

"Nonetheless, investors should stay alert due to the increasing market volatility,” he told Bernama.

Thong also expects some bargain-hunting activities to continue considering the cheap valuations of the local market as compared to regional peers.

He foresees the benchmark index to trade within the 1,420 to 1,450 range for the week with immediate support at 1,400 and resistance at 1,460.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank was one sen lower at RM8.58, CIMB Group added four sen to RM5.09, Press Metal Aluminium and Petronas Gas gained 18 sen each to RM4.15 and RM16.60 respectively, while Tenaga Nasional decreased four sen to RM7.95, and Hong Leong Bank fell by 10 sen to RM20.20.

Of the actives, MMAG Holdings and Sapura Energy added half-a-sen each to 5.5 sen and 4.5 sen respectively, Top Glove Corporation climbed 4.5 sen to RM1.04, while newly-listed Ecoscience International slid four sen to 26 sen, and Borneo Oil was flat at 2.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 89.22 points to 10,137.11, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 142.19 points to 10,224.54, the FBM 70 was 144.67 points higher at 12,139.68, the FBMT 100 Index improved 86.45 points to 9,902.20, and the FBM ACE Index climbed 74.19 points to 4,634.02.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index put on 2.98 points to 169.71, the Energy Index soared 24.22 points to 628.86, the Plantation Index added 120.20 points to 6,775.93, and the Financial Services Index was 5.93 points higher at 16,013.62.

The Main Market volume advanced to 1.34 billion shares worth RM1.06 billion against 1.29 billion shares worth RM916.47 million last Friday.

Warrants turnover decreased to 383.78 million units valued at RM79.97 million versus 398.90 million units valued at RM75.88 million previously.

The ACE Market volume swelled to 678.12 million shares worth RM130.84 million from 351.41 million shares worth RM66.41 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 175.53 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (409.72 million), construction (32.71 million), technology (130.32 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (32.13 million), property (60.89 million), plantation (29.54 million), REITs (3.54 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (267.24 million), healthcare (107.88 million), telecommunications and media (52.86 million), transportation and logistics (24.75 million), and utilities (10.24 million). — Bernama