KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia started the week strong, with the FBM KLCI finishing 0.48% higher buoyed by continued buying momentum.
The market bellwether rose 7.5 points, or 0.48% to 1,582.66 after hitting its intraday high of 1,583.34.
There were 668 gainers with 438 losers and 474 counters unchanged. Turnover stood at 4.24 billion shares worth RM3.48bil.
According to dealers, investor sentiment in the local market has been improving thanks to increased foreign investment, driven by global optimism during the ongoing US corporate earnings season.
Foreign investors showed renewed interest in the domestic market's blue-chip counters last week, making a net purchase of RM292.2mil on Bursa Malaysia.
The net foreign inflow ended eight weeks of net outflow from the domestic market, according to MIDF Research.
Among the gainers on Bursa Malaysia, Malaysian Pacific Industries
jumped 50 sen to RM30, Apollo Food rose 50 sen to RM6.99, YTL Power advanced 37 sen to RM4.79, Chin Hin gained 30 sen to RM5.30 and YTL gained 17 sen to RM3.20.
YTL Power contributed 4.3656 points to the index while YTL added 2.7074 points to the index.
Dutch Lady slid 38 sen to RM33.82, Nestle fell 30 sen to RM126.90, Malaysia Airports lost 26 sen to RM9.94 and KLCCP Stapled declined 19 sen to RM7.52.
Capital A and AirAsia X (AAX) ended higher on news of its merger proposal. Capital A rose 5.5 sen, or 7.48% to 79 sen with 66.92 million shares traded while AAX jumped 16 sen, or 11.68% to RM1.53 with 19.25 million shares done.
On the external front, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.81% to 37,934.76 while South Korea’s Kospi closed up 1.17% at 2,687.44.
China’s CSI300 index gained 1.11% to 3,623.91 while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.79% to 3,113.04.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.54% at 17,746.91.
