KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed broadly higher on Friday with positive market breadth after two straight days of decline.
At its close, the FBM KLCI was up 5.65 points or 0.39% at 1,436.70. On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the index lost 20.04 points.
Market breadth turned positive as gainers overpowered the losers on a ratio of 519-to-345 stocks. Traded volumes stood at 2.47 billion shares worth RM1.48bil.
The gainers among the KLCI constituents were led by Hong Leong Financial Group, which rose 16 sen to RM18.38, Press Metal
, which added 14 sen to RM4.77, Telekom Malaysia gained 10 sen to RM5.15 and Petronas Chemicals climbed 10 sen to RM9.25.
Laggards among the KLCI component stocks were Kuala Lumpur Kepong, which lost 46 sen to RM22.38, Hong Leong Bank, which fell 24 sen to RN20.16 and Nestle shed 20 sen to RM132.60.
On the broader market, Malaysian Pacific Industries jumped 80 sen to RM28, F&N surged 64 sen to RM20.58 and Heineken Malaysia rose 38 sen to RM24.28.
Among the key regional markets:
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 1.23% to 26,491.97;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 2.09% to 21,719.06;
Shanghai Composite Index added 0.89% to 3,349.75;
Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 0.84% to 15,303.32;
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 2.26% to 2,366.60 and;
Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.6% to 3,111.65 points.
