KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended sharply higher today in line with the firmer regional stock markets buoyed by the stronger Wall Street, dealers said.
At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) went up 21.33 points to 1,601.7, after moving between 1,579.98 and 1,601.7 throughout the day.
A dealer said the regional markets’ sentiment received a boost following the biggest gains on Wall Street in four years.
“This is after a US Federal Reserve policymaker said the case for an interest rate increase next month ‘seems less compelling than it was a few weeks ago’,” he said.
China’s Shanghai Composite rose 156.3 points to 3,083.59, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng soared 758.15 points to 21,838.54, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 197.61 points to 18,574.44 and Seoul Composite went up 13.91 points to 1,908.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index surged 159.46 points to 10,904.92, FBMT100 Index advanced 150.681 points to 10,665.28 and the FBM Emas Syariah rose 145.69 points to 11,392.54.
The FBM Ace chalked up 139.52 points to 5,036.34 and the FBM 70 shot up 194.91 points to 11,516.51.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index surged 296.14 points to 14,210.3, Industrial Index increased 39.64 points to 3,053.27 and the Plantation Index rose 33.73 points to 6,796.11.
Gainers more than tripled losers by 726 to 206, while 222 counters remained unchanged, 649 untraded and 44 others suspended.
Total volume, however, declined to 2.1 billion units valued at RM2.31 billion from yesterday’s 2.15 billion units valued at RM2.27 billion. -Bernama