KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Bursa Malaysia rallied to close broadly higher today amid strong buying interests mainly in plantation and telco stocks, with the benchmark index settling above 1,400-mark.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) surged 14.09 points or 1.01 per cent to finish at 1,400.36 from yesterday’s close of 1,386.27.

The barometer index opened 6.65 points higher at 1,392.92, and moved between 1,392.92 and 1,400.39.

On the broader market, gainers led decliners 566 to 272, while 368 counters were unchanged, 1,144 untraded and seven others suspended.

Turnover widened to 2.40 billion units worth RM1.71 billion against yesterday’s 1.98 billion units worth RM1.49 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng was cautiously optimistic on the near term given the improving global market sentiment.

"We expect investors will continue to bargain-hunt stocks due to attractive valuations following heavy selldowns over the past two weeks. We anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend within the range of 1,390-1,410 for the remainder of the week with immediate resistance at 1,430 and support at 1,370,” he said.

Axiata surged 23 sen to RM2.64, IOI Corp soared 26 sen to RM3.95 and Digi jumped 17 sen to RM3.44. The three counters contributed 8.54 points to the benchmark index.

Among heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals advanced five sen to RM8.55, IHH Healthcare chalked up 11 sen to RM5.97, Public Bank was flat at RM4.20, Maybank shed one sen to RM8.51 and CIMB gave up five sen to RM5.25.

Of the actives, Careplus gained one sen to 42.5 sen, Hong Seng Consolidated improved by five sen to 27 sen, NWP edged up half-a-sen to 23.5 sen, Top Glove was flat at 74 sen, and Citaglobal eased one sen to 26.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index bolstered 110.84 points to 9,974.90, the FBM 70 strengthened 173.61 points to 12,006.15 and the FBMT 100 Index shoot up 107.92 points to 9,721.75.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 181.64 points to 10,034.78 and the FBM ACE climbed 71.40 points to 4,753.17.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index fell 22.57 points to 15,893.33, the Industrial Products and Services Index grew 1.31 point to 170.86, the Plantation Index soared 211.21 points to 6,616.67, while the Energy Index gained 5.73 points to 670.77.

The Main Market volume rose to 1.47 billion shares worth RM1.40 billion from 1.16 billion shares worth RM1.22 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover appreciated to 300.37 million units valued at RM47.67 million against 269.20 million units valued at RM44.36 million yesterday.

The ACE Market volume expanded to 633.53 million shares worth RM260.03 million from 546.11 million shares worth RM219.47 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 224.43 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (398.64 million), construction (50.92 million), technology (215.34 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (50.21 million), property (69.52 million), plantation (18.76 million), REITs (10.59 million), closed/fund (14,900), energy (82.26 million), healthcare (273.37 million), telecommunications and media (31.12 million), transportation and logistics (29.78 million), and utilities (15.50 million). — Bernama