The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) started the day at 1,490.87 or 0.48 of a point down from yesterday’s close of 1,491.35.
However, investor interest in heavyweight counters led by telecommunications and media stocks gave it the lift to close today’s trading session at 1,494.73.
The benchmark index moved between 1,486.98 and 1,497.66 throughout the day.
On the broader market, gainers led decliners 416 to 373, while 450 counters were unchanged, 1,051 not traded, and nine others suspended.
Total turnover rose marginally to 2.39 billion units worth RM1.86 billion from 2.36 billion units worth RM1.61 billion yesterday.
According to Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng, regional key indices closed broadly higher after Wall Street surged overnight.
“Investors now see that interest rate concerns have been priced into the markets and are picking up stocks at reduced levels following the recent weakness,” he told Bernama.
He reckons that the overall market sentiment will further improve as falling commodity prices, especially crude oil, could ease inflationary risks for the global economy.
“As such, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to test the 1,500-mark towards the weekend,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bursa heavyweights Maxis added six sen to RM3.82, TM jumped nine sen to RM5.90, Digi increased two sen to RM3.55, TNB added 10 sen to RM8.85 and Petronas Dagangan surged 48 sen to RM21.88.
Of the actives, Metronic fell 1.5 sen to 4.5 sen, Umedic lost a sen to 75 sen, SNS Network was flat at 26 sen, Agmo and Cnergenz advanced 2.5 sen each to 94.5 sen and 91.0 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM emas index went up 28.53 points to 10,613.90, the FBMT 100 index firmed 30.37 points to 10,363.67, the FBM emas shariah index bagged 39.79 points to 10,704.37, the FBM ACE inched up 28.48 points to 4,802.10 and the FBM 70 grew 65.13 points to 12,745.10.
Sector-wise, the plantation index was 5.63 points lower at 7,023.20, the energy index slid 2.69 points to 706.50, the financial services index rose 22.02 points to 16,735.05, the industrial products and services index added 0.28 of-a-point to 185.33 and the telecommunications and media index widened 3.81 points to 589.75.
The Main Market volume went down to 1.46 billion shares worth RM1.43 billion from 1.54 billion shares worth RM1.34 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover fell to 227.16 million units valued at RM37.89 million from 264.82 million units valued at RM38.42 million previously.
The ACE Market volume increased to 696.75 million shares worth RM388.99 million from 559.39 million shares worth RM238.12 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 169.69 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (591.01 million), construction (36.99 million), technology (141.15 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (59.79 million), property (166.24 million), plantation (24.51 million), REITs (3.88 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (123.48 million), healthcare (73.58 million), telecommunications and media (20.98 million), transportation and logistics (39.73 million), and utilities (15.35 million).