KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed sharply higher boosted by industrial as well as trade and services-related companies, dealers said.
At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,810.68, up 14.46 points, after opening 4.94 points higher at 1,801.16.
The benchmark index hovered between 1,800.44 and 1,813.13.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index advanced 132.3 points to 12,569.45, the FBMT100 Index added 117.15 points to 12,223.49, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 132.3 points to 12,569.45.
The FBM 70 increased 206.569 points to 13,825.3 and the FBM Ace gained 156.3 points to 6,214.8.
The Finance Index rose 55.42 points to 16,668.25, the Plantation Index added 64.07 points to 8,010.94 and the Industrial Index gained 30.15 points to 3,147.38.
The market saw strong buying interest following the overnight fall in oil prices.
A dealer said oil prices continued to fall after the US Energy Department reported an increase in oil inventories.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the benchmark US crude was down 36 cents at US$80.16 (US$1.00=RM3.26) a barrel after declining US$1.97 on Wednesday.
"This is somewhat good news as many countries in the region are reliant on imported fuel," the dealer said.
However, gains were capped amid worries over slower Chinese growth as its manufacturing output grew at the slowest pace in five months.
Gainers outpaced losers 670 to 185, while 249 counters were unchanged, 550 untraded and 28 others suspended.
Total volume rose to 1.59 billion shares worth RM2.01 billion from 1.24 billion shares valued at RM1.38 billion on Tuesday.
The local equity market was closed yesterday due to the Deepavali Holiday.
Among the volume leaders, Malaysian Airline System added half-a-sen to 25.5 sen, Sumatec Resources gained two sen to 34 sen and IFCA MSC gained 3.5 sen to 50 sen.
As for heavyweights, Maybank rose seven sen to RM9.76, Public Bank increased six sen to RM18.62 and Tenaga added 30 sen to RM12.86.
Main Market volume rose to 1.19 billion units worth RM1.92 billion from 930.7 million units valued at RM1.33 billion on Tuesday.
Turnover on the ACE Market increased to 322.32 million shares valued at RM83.07 million from 265.18 million shares worth RM49.54 million.
Warrants went up to 72.62 million units worth RM7.17 million from 46.36 million units valued at RM4.55 million.
Consumer products accounted for 87.58 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (180.87 million), construction (44.83 million), trade and services (579.7 million), technology (72.46 million), infrastructure (19.85 million), SPAC (43.69 million), finance (56.37 million), hotels (787,400), properties (78.53 million), plantations (17.68 million), mining (146,300), REITs (10.38 million) and closed/fund (12,000).-- Bernama