KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 — Bursa Malaysia ended higher today, lifted by buying interest in most heavyweights, led by energy and technology stocks, amid improving market sentiment across the region, said a dealer.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) put on 2.74 points or 0.18 per cent to 1,487.87 from yesterday's closing of 1,485.13.

The market bellwether opened 1.91 points better at 1,487.04 and moved between 1,484.21 and 1,489.00 throughout the trading day.

Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 573 to 340, while 390 counters were unchanged, 898 untraded, and 10 others suspended.

Turnover increased to 3.57 billion units worth RM2.17 billion against yesterday's 3.19 billion units worth RM1.91 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said regional indices closed broadly higher, boosted by the upbeat performance on Wall Street overnight ahead of market-moving reports due later in the week.

"Meanwhile, investors are buoyed by China’s border reopening, which keeps the market undertone steady,” he told Bernama.

On the domestic front, he reckoned that the local market equities will further improve driven by positive investor sentiment in the region.

"Additionally, buying support from local institutions have been rather apparent, hence, we reckon the index will show a more positive performance and expect it to hover between 1,480 and 1,500 range for the remainder of the week,” he added.

Region-wise, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.49 per cent to 21,436.05, Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 0.26 per cent to 3,271.51, Japan’s Nikkei 225 increased 1.03 per cent to 26,446.00, and South Korea’s Kospi went up 0.35 per cent to 2,359.53.

Among heavyweights, Dialog Group added three sen to RM2.58, Inari Amertron gained one sen to RM2.65, Digi.com climbed 12 sen to RM4.10, Maybank perked up four sen to RM8.83, and CIMB edged up five sen to RM5.77.

As for the actives, DNeX advanced 5.5 sen to 56 sen, Cypark Resources and DS Sigma rose 1.5 sen each to 71.5 sen and 65.5 sen respectively, Velesto Energy ticked up half-a-sen to 16.5 sen, while Citaglobal shed three sen to 32 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 33.78 points to 10,726.38, the FBMT 100 Index gained 28.30 points to 10,423.92, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 23.75 points higher at 10,917.09.

The FBM 70 Index was 75.47 points firmer at 13,193.84 and the FBM ACE Index inched up 32.93 points to 5,409.76.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index increased 17.84 points to 813.90, the Technology Index advanced 0.76 of-a-point to 65.04, the Financial Services Index jumped 85.13 points to 16,565.46, the Plantation Index garnered 10.28 points to 6,934.68, and the Industrial Products and Services Index ticked up 0.85 of-a-point to 183.30.

The Main Market volume improved to 2.36 billion shares worth RM1.83 billion compared with Tuesday’s 1.97 billion shares worth RM1.56 billion.

Warrants turnover swelled to 334.68 million units worth RM77.61 million from 261.58 million units worth RM54.45 million yesterday.

The ACE Market volume decreased to 871.35 million shares worth RM265.24 million from 950.96 million shares worth RM290.0 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 261.26 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (656.81 million); construction (105.65 million); technology (717.99 million); SPAC (nil), financial services (49.81 million); property (135.78 million); plantation (32.28 million); REITs (7.21 million), closed/fund (nil); energy (209.81 million); healthcare (72.69 million); telecommunications and media (39.07 million); transportation and logistics (39.38 million); and utilities (40.84 million). — Bernama