KL shares close to new high

Last-minute buying, mostly seen in the Finance counters, has pushed up the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) to a new high for this year, dealers said.

At 5pm, the benchmark index stood at 1,855.63, up 3.63 points, beating the previous new high of 1,852.95 on January 2.

The index hovered between 1,847.81 and 1,855.83 throughout today's trading.

When the market closed, Public Bank and Allianz Malaysia finance stocks emerged among the top gainers, adding 52 sen and 36 sen each to RM20 and

RM10.70, respectively.

Public Bank, one of the heavyweight counters, contributed 2.32 points to the key benchmark index, followed by Petronas Gas, with 1.64 points, rising 46 sen

to RM24.88.

Affin Investment Bank vice-president Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said today's selling on the local bourse was well-absorbed by the investors.

"Investors are parking sell-order at the 1,850 level. The next immediate resistance level maybe at 1,880," added Nazri Khan, who is also the bank's head

of retail research, told Bernama.

Gainers outpaced losers 420 to 415, while 336 counters were unchanged, 437 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Turnover fell to 2.12 billion shares worth RM2.81 billion from 2.35 billion shares valued at RM2.64 billion on Wednesday.

On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index increased 10.26 points to 3,209.39, the Finance Index surged 111.76 points to 16,817.3 and the Plantation Index

improved 24.15 points to 8,951.57.

The FBM Emas Index gained 22.46 points to 12,856.4, the FBMT100 Index rose 21.46 points to 12,503.99, the FBM 70 jumped 12.45 points to 14,03.36, but the

FBM Ace fell 5.87 points to 6,770.35.

Among actives, Ingenuity Consolidated lost one sen to 8.5 sen, Xidelang shed two sen to 25 sen, but Asian Pac rose two sen to 23.5 sen and Insas earned one

sen to RM1.32.

As for heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM9.68, CIMB was four sen higher at RM7.25, but Tenaga Nasional lost 44 sen to RM11.30 and Axiata slipped

two sen to RM6.71.

Main market volume narrowed to 1.58 billion units worth RM2.66 billion from 1.69 billion units valued at RM2.49 billion yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE market fell to 500.4 million shares worth RM136 million from yesterday's 610.62 million shares valued at RM137.58 million.

Warrants advanced to 38.67 million units valued at RM9.29 million from 37.81 million units worth RM8.34 million on Wednesday.

Consumer products accounted for 246.76 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 233.68 million, construction 83.67 million, trade and services 441.24 million, technology 77.21 million, infrastructure 11.25 million, SPAC 63.51 million, finance 104.86 million, hotels 473,000, properties

296.99 million, plantations 15.78 million, mining 58,100, REITs 6.63 million and closed/fund 94,700