KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher today on continued buying interest in selected heavyweight stocks led by the finance sector and in line with the uptrend among regional peers, dealers said.
The barometer index was mainly lifted by Maybank and CIMB Group, which together accounted for 7.649 points of the index.
At close, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 8.68 points higher at 1,785.81, after moving between 1,778.23 and 1,801.42 during the day.
It opened 2.84 points higher at 1,779.97 from Wednesday's close of 1,777.13.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 597 to 357 with 435 counters unchanged, 510 untraded and 32 others were suspended.
Volume increased to 4.06 billion units worth RM3.25 billion, compared with Wednesday's 3.50 billion units valued at RM3.02 billion.
A dealer said the local bourse tracked the performance of Asian markets which rebounded to make broad gains today after the better overnight performance of Wall Street.
“Asian stocks also ended higher today as worries over a full-blown trade war dissipated,” he added.
Regionally, the Singapore's Straits Times index rose 0.04 per cent to 3,469.05, Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.87 per cent to 22,823.26, South Korea's Kospi increased 0.69 per cent to 2,470.58 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index bagged 0.81 per cent to 31,512.63.
For other heavyweights, Public Bank was 20 sen lower at RM24.80, TNB gained 20 sen to RM14.56, Petronas Chemicals increased two sen to RM8.37, while Sime Darby was flat at RM5.37.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy eased 1.5 sen to 63.5 sen, MyEG eased two sen to 78 sen, Barakah Petroleum gained 9.5 sen to 22 sen, Cuscapi was half-a-sen higher at 25 sen and PUC improved one sen to 22.5 sen.