FBM KLCI rebounds to hit fresh two-year high

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI staged a rebound on Friday, climbing to a fresh two-year high in tandem with the positive performance of regional bourses.

At 5pm, the benchmark index rose 5.91 points, or 0.38% to 1,575.16. The index had earlier dipped to its intraday low of 1,566.34 and hit a high of 1,575.57. For the week, the index gained 1.78%.

Market gainers trounced decliners by 621 versus 466, while 470 counters were unchanged. Trading volume was brisk at 4.1 billion shares valued at RM3.25bil.

Dutch Lady jumped 76 sen to RM34.20, Malaysia Airports rose 31 sen to RM10.20, YTL Power advanced 30 sen to RM4.42 and Quality Concrete added 29.5 sen to RM1.19.

Malaysian Pacific Industries, the top loser on Bursa Malaysia, fell 44 sen to RM29.50. United Plantations eased 38 sen to RM24.90, ViTrox lost 22 sen to RM7.40 and Heineken declined 22 sen to RM23.14.

Laggards in the KLCI component stocks included Petronas Chemicals, which fell 10 sen to RM9.30, IOI Corp shed 12 sen to RM4.27 and IHH healthcare fell five sen to RM4.69.

MyEG was the most actively traded stock. The stock, which saw 409.95 million shares traded, gained 10.5 sen to 91.5 sen.

The regional markets finished broadly higher with Nikkei 225 up 0.81% to 37,934.76, South Korea’s Kospi index closing up 1.05% to 2,656.33, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rising 2.12% to 17,651.15 and China’s CSI 300 Index gained 1.53% to 3,584.27.