KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — Continuous buying spree in heavyweights mainly in healthcare, plantation, and telecommunications sectors boosted Bursa Malaysia to end in positive zone today after a marginal decline yesterday.

An analyst attributed the rise in trading to a pre-election rally.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased 10.57 points to end at its intraday high of 1,454.98 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,444.41.

The barometer index opened 3.16 points higher at 1,447.57.

The broader market was also positive with gainers trouncing losers 519 to 354, while 376 counters were unchanged, 1,115 untraded, and 11 others suspended.

Turnover increased to 2.61 billion units valued at RM1.80 billion versus 2.26 billion units valued at RM1.76 billion yesterday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng told Bernama that today’s interest was also inspired by the positive Wall Street performance overnight, as investors were upbeat over falling treasury yields.

US Treasury bond yields fell amid the ongoing narrative in the markets that the US Federal Reserve might slow the pace of its rate hikes.

Looking at the improved sentiment currently, he believed the FBM KLCI could trade as high as the 1,470 level for the remainder of the week.

Heavyweights KLK soared 94 sen to RM22.42, while Digi and IOI Corp jumped 13 sen to RM3.75 and RM4.04 respectively.

Maxis and Tenaga Nasional gained 12 sen each to RM3.69 and RM8.37 respectively, while Hartalega surged 22 sen to RM2.07, and Axiata added seven sen to RM2.81.

Newly-listed Betamek topped the most active list, jumping 21 sen to close at 71 sen, followed by Serba Dinamik which remained flat at two sen. Top Glove was up 4.0 sen to 75.5 sen, Sapura Energy eased half-a-sen to 4.0 sen and Careplus climbed 5.0 sen to 44.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 69.15 points to 10,297.54, the FBM 70 climbed 68.91 points to 12,176.30, and the FBMT 100 Index increased 69.21 points to 10,044.03.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index shot up 113.99 points to 10,326.11, while the FBM ACE expanded 38.44 points to 4,869.04.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 12.39 points to 16,492.78, the Energy Index edged up 5.28 points to 683.64, the Industrial Products and Services Index lost 0.13 of-a-point to 174.96, and the Plantation Index surged 149.41 points to 6,941.49.

The Main Market volume rose 1.50 billion shares worth RM1.35 billion from 1.25 billion shares worth RM1.49 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover dwindled to 351.83 million units worth RM54.23 million from 431.82 million units worth RM71.87 million.

The ACE Market volume swelled to 796.21 million shares worth RM392.44 million from 575.24 million shares worth RM200.29 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 197.28 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (326.74 million), construction (36.35 million), technology (154.52 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (52.82 million), property (107.77 million), plantation (30.27 million), REITs (3.82 million), closed/fund (5,700), energy (211.85 million), healthcare (274.26 million), telecommunications and media (27.54 million), transportation and logistics (23.69 million), and utilities (12.76 million). — Bernama