KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — Bursa Malaysia continued its upward trajectory to end higher today, driven by buying support in selected heavyweights led by banking, plantation as well as oil and gas counters.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.57 points or 0.28 per cent to 1,598.32 from yesterday’s close of 1,593.75.

The index opened 4.64 points firmer at 1,598.39 and moved between 1,594.13 and 1,599.91 throughout the day.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 518 to 445, with 416 counters unchanged, 894 untraded, and 16 others suspended.

Total turnover decreased to 2.84 billion units worth RM2.03 billion from 3.11 billion units worth RM2.60 billion yesterday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the key regional markets were mixed in choppy trading, as investors adopted a wait-and-see approach to see if the decline in US’ Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 indices overnight were just a one-day affair or will extend for some days.

“On the domestic front, we believe the performance of local bourse will remain steady as foreign funds continue to accumulate local equities, although we do not discount the possibility of intermittent correction,” he told Bernama.

Thong also expects the FBM KLCI to move within the 1,595-1,610 range towards the weekend.

Regionally, the Singapore Straits Times Index added 0.39 per cent to 3,348.46, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.23 per cent to 27,553.06, South Korea’s Kospi increased 0.35 per cent to 2,728.21, while Shanghai’s SSE Composite fell 2.26 per cent to 3,079.81, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dipped 1.25 per cent to 20,682.22.

On the local bourse, heavyweights Maybank and Petronas Chemicals added eight sen each to RM8.88 and RM10.38, respectively, Public Bank rose two sen to RM4.67, IHH Healthcare improved two sen to RM6.54 and Press Metal climbed four sen to RM6.59.

Of the actives, MNC Wireless, VIzione, Sapura Energy, and Ta Win rose half-a-sen each to three sen, 10.5 sen, 4.5 sen, and 16 sen, respectively, while Tanco added 3.5 sen to 35.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBMT 100 Index increased 29.35 points to 11,123.64, the FBM Emas Index was 34.31 points firmer at 11,484.30, the FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 2.91 points to 12,134.48, the FBM 70 climbed 26.53 points to 13,848.65, while the FBM ACE dropped 6.40 points to 5,803.49.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index improved 133.46 points to 16,711.87, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.37 points to 216.55, while the Plantation Index fell 2.28 points to 8,605.10.

The Main Market volume was marginally higher at 1.93 billion shares worth RM1.85 billion compared with 1.86 billion shares worth RM2.34 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover slipped to 323.97 million units valued at RM43.56 million against 354.06 million units valued at RM59.61 million.

The ACE Market volume slumped to 582.92 million shares worth RM142.39 million versus 892.13 million shares worth RM206.19 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 229.49 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (575.61 million), construction (261.12 million), technology (217.38 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (66.42 million), property (181.46 million), plantation (66.19 million), REITs (13.86 million), closed/fund (9,000), energy (211.74 million), healthcare (39.88 million), telecommunications and media (25.37 million), transportation and logistics (25.40 million), and utilities (25.36 million). — Bernama