KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended its rally for a fifth straight session to end at an intraday high, with technology and semiconductor counters leading gains.
The FBM KLCI rose 4.25 points, or 0.25% to 1,715.16, its intraday high recovering from its low of 1,701.83.
Market breadth was negative despite a large number of unchanged counters. There were 503 gainers, 582 losers and 564 counters trading unchanged on Bursa Malaysia.
Turnover came in at 3.25 billion shares worth RM3.32bil.
Dealers said gains in the FBM KLCI were supported by buying in banking counters, while the broader market saw mixed activity with buying interest in technology and semiconductor stocks.
They cautioned that some consolidation could occur after the recent rally, even as overall sentiment remains supported.
Semiconductor-related and technology stocks were among the top gainers on Bursa Malaysia today. Malaysian Pacific Industries
was the top gainer, jumping 90 sen to RM33.70.
MI Technovation rose 19 sen to RM3.39, Greatech Technology added 17 sen to RM1.64 and ViTrox gained 15 sen to RM4.60.
Among the decliners, Nestle slid RM2.50 to RM116, United Plantations lost 52 sen to RM32.90, F&N fell 36 sen to RM36 and PETRONAS Dagangan declined 30 sen to RM20.70.
On the forex market, the ringgit declined 0.2% against the US dollar to 4.0573 and inched down 0.1% against the Singapore dollar to 3.1488.
On the external front, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.01%, with most regional markets ending mixed.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.42% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.28%.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.3%, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index edged up 0.2%.
In China, the CSI300 rose 0.2%, while the Shanghai Composite slid 0.33%.
