At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 17.14 points to reach its intraday high of 1,507.71 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,490.57.
The benchmark index opened 1.09 points firmer at 1,491.66.
On the broader market, gainers led decliners 611 to 276, with 392 counters unchanged, 956 not traded, and nine others suspended.
Total turnover increased to 2.65 billion units worth RM1.89 billion from 1.91 billion units worth RM1.35 billion yesterday.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said regionally, key indices ended mostly higher in response to positive cues from Wall Street overnight.
At the same time, he said, foreign funds have continued to flow into the region given the growth potential in regional equity markets.
“Back home, we are cautiously optimistic given the improvement in the local market sentiment amid foreign support. As such, we anticipate the benchmark index to (sustain) its uptrend towards the weekend,” he told Bernama.
“After breaking the 1,500 level, we see the next resistance at the 1,530 level, while support is at the 1,460 level,” he added.
Thong reckons that investors had been more focused on upcoming corporate results than geopolitics in the Taiwan Strait.
“I think investors will be busier looking at corporate results for now,” he said.
State-run media reported on Thursday that China’s military has begun live fire exercises in waters and airspace around Taiwan.
Back home, among the heavyweight stocks, Maybank rose seven sen to RM8.90, both Public Bank and IHH Healthcare were four sen higher at RM4.65 and RM6.46, respectively, CIMB added two sen to RM5.25, while Petronas Chemicals lost four sen to RM8.86.
Of the actives, Dagang Nexchange gained seven sen to 88 sen, both PUC and Zen Tech fell half-a-sen each to two sen and three sen, respectively, CSH Alliance slid a sen to five sen and Metronic went down 2.5 sen to 7.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM emas index surged 122.06 points to 10,694.28, the FBMT 100 index jumped 120.09 points to 10,443.84, the FBM ACE bagged 94.83 points to 4,885.28, the FBM emas shariah index soared 154.68 points to 10,867.73, and the FBM 70 climbed 154.68 points to 10,867.73.
Sector-wise, the plantation index advanced 55.98 points to 7,083.99, the financial services index perked up 95.07 points to 16,665.21, the industrial products and services index ticked up 0.77 of-a-point to 185.97, and the energy index perked up 0.33 of-a-point to 661.07.
The main market volume strengthened to 1.73 billion shares worth RM1.63 billion against 1.12 billion shares worth RM1.14 billion yesterday.
Warrants turnover was higher at 369.91 million units valued at RM58.29 million versus 282.36 million units valued at RM51.49 million yesterday.
The ACE market volume increased to 547.97 million shares worth RM197.96 million from 507.42 million shares worth RM162.16 million previously.