KUALA LUMPUR: The local bourse spent the day vacillating between gains and losses before closing higher on a positive note on Monday.
At 5pm, the bellwether FBM KLCI closed up 4.33 points, or 0.25% to 1,710.71 after trading in the range between an intra-day high of 1,712.97 and a low of 1,698.51. The index opened 6.43 points higher at 1,712.81 this morning.
Broad market sentiment continued to be weaker, with 428 losers outpacing 365 gainers and 369 counters which traded unchanged. Turnover was at 1.58 billion shares valued at RM1.56bil.
The ringgit strengthens 0.03% to 4.1897 against the greenback. The ringgit, however, was traded lower against Singapore dollar at 3.0522, British pound at 5.3909 and euro at 4.7835.
Bursa Malaysia and its subsidiaries will be closed tomorrow in conjunction with Maulidur Rasul.
Nestle was the top gainer on Bursa Malaysia, rising 80 sen to RM147.80, Allianz rose 44 sen to RM12.28 while Public Bank added 38 sen to RM25.
Among the heavyweights, CIMB gained eight sen to RM5.73, IHH Healthcare rose seven sen to RM4.81, Maybank closed five sen higher at RM9.50 and Petronas Dagangan advanced 26 sen t RM27.16.
Top losers on included Carlsberg, which fell 24 sen to RM19.36 while Harison declined 20 sen to RM3.60.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose by around 1% on Monday amid expectations that top exporter Saudi Arabia will push producer club OPEC as well as perhaps Russia to cut supply towards year-end, Reuters reported.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at US$56.83 per barrel, up 37 cents while Brent crude oil futures were up 26 cents at US$67.02 per barrel.
Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei ended 0.7% higher to 21,821.16. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.7% higher at 26,372.00, while the China Enterprises Index gained 0.5% to 10,631.66. The Shanghai Composite Index was 0.9% higher at 2,703.51 points.
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