KL shares close higher

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed higher today, driven by gains in selected heavyweights and finance counters, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,852, up 4.24 points, after hovering between 1,846.82 and 1,854.01 throughout the trading day.

For finance stocks, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia and Public Bank closed the day among the top gainers, gaining 50 sen and 30 sen each to RM12.70 and RM19.48 respectively.

Of the heavyweights, SapuraKencana Petroleum improved 12 sen to RM4.68 on news that it had received a new contract and three drilling contract extensions

worth RM1.45 billion recently.

Meanwhile, the within-expectation fourth quarter result posted by Astro Malaysia had made its share attractive, ending trading 10 sen higher at RM3.32.

Gainers outpaced losers 543 to 270, while 349 counters were unchanged, 446 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Turnover rose to 2.35 billion shares worth RM2.64 billion from 1.98 billion shares valued at RM2.05 billion on Tuesday.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index increased 8.22 points to 3,199.13, and the Finance Index surged 79.93 points to 16,705.54, but the Plantation Index

fell 4.15 points to 8,927.42.

The FBM Emas Index climbed 43.5 points to 12,833.94, the FBMT100 Index rose 37.68 points to 12,482.53, the FBM 70 jumped 77.87 points to 14,040.91 and

the FBM Ace gained 25.73 points to 6,776.22.

Among actives, Malaysia Airlines was flat at 21 sen, while Symphony gained two sen for 21 sen, with Insas earning two sen for 21 sen, with R&A

Telecommunication ending six sen higher at RM1.31.

As for the heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby were flat at RM9.67 and RM9.26 respectively, but Tenaga fell 22 sen to RM11.74, and Axiata eased one sen

to RM6.73.

Main market volume widened to 1.69 billion units valued at RM2.49 billion from the 1.31 billion units worth RM1.87 billion on Tuesday.

Turnover on the ACE market declined to 610.62 million shares worth RM137.58 million from yesterday's 621.68 million shares valued at RM170.79 million.

Warrants slipped to 37.81 million units valued at RM8.34 million from 44.93 million units worth RM13.33 million on Tuesday.

Consumer products accounted for 92.41 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 316.9 million, construction 88.05 million, trade and services 612.99 million, technology 58.63 million, infrastructure 23.66 million, SPAC 86.5 million, finance 106.21 million, hotels 685,700, properties

280.65 million, plantations 19.34 million, mining 63,600, REITs 7.17 million and closed/fund 49,500