KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended marginally higher today on continued buying support on the back of the country’s better industrial production data released earlier today.
Malaysia’s Industrial Production Index increased by 4.2 per cent in April 2014 compared with the same month last year.
The increase was supported by growth across-the-board and would lead to a healthy second quarter gross domestic product, an analyst said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 1.77 points to close at 1,878.38, after opening 2.86 points higher at 1,879.47.
The benchmark index fluctuated between 1,873.59 and 1,879.91.
Market breadth was positive as gainers outpaced losers by 366 to 302, while 345 counters were unchanged, 612 untraded and 16 others suspended.
In contrast, most regional markets were weaker after the World Bank cut its global growth forecast to 2.8 per cent from an earlier 3.2 per cent.
“Bursa Malaysia remains steady despite lacklustre session on Wall Street overnight,” a dealer said.
Total turnover rose to 1.39 billion shares valued at RM1.71 billion from 1.27 billion shares valued at RM1.82 billion yesterday.
BAT, which led the gainers’ list, rose 86 sen to RM63.86. Lafarge Malaysia added 18 sen to RM9.57.
Puncak Niaga advanced 19 sen to RM3.31 after the company agreed to the proposed RM1.56 billion acquisition of its unit by the Selangor state government via Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd.
Among actives, MAS rose one sen to 19 sen, ETI Tech fell one sen to seven sen and Hubline was flat at 5.5 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank was unchanged at RM9.86, Public Bank shed four sen to RM20.78 but Tenaga gained two sen to RM11.78.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index increased 0.76 of a point to 17,194.74, Industrial Index rose 8.51 points to 3,202.88 and the Plantation Index advanced 9.61 points to 9,251.66.
The FBM Emas Index was 22.16 points higher at 12,990.8, FBMT100 Index added 19.601 points to 12,635.16, FBM Ace rose 0.89 of a point to 6,623.1 and the FBM 70 advanced 52.091 points to 14,114.23. – Bernama
