KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended in positive territory on Thursday, supported by selective buying in blue chips while investors remained cautious amid a mixed regional market performance.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI rose 8.43 points, or 0.49%, to 1,722.19 after touching an intraday high of 1,726.75.
Winners and losers were closely balanced, with 576 gainers against 550 losers and 563 that were flat. About 3.7 billion shares, valued at RM2.8bil, changed hands.
Dealers said the local market was supported by selective buying in heavyweight banking and defensive stocks, although overall gains remained limited.
They added that investors remained cautious ahead of key economic data releases and ongoing uncertainty over the global interest rate outlook.
Among the gainers, Nestle rose RM1 to RM93, United Plantations gained 30 sen to RM35, Critical Holdings advanced 24 sen to RM1.90 and Nationgate climbed 20 sen to RM1.17.
Conversely, technology and semiconductor stocks were among the biggest losers on Bursa Malaysia, led by Malaysian Pacific Industries
, which fell 46 sen to RM45.28.
UMS Integration shed 28 sen to RM8.03, UWC lost 13 sen to RM6.03, MI Technovation dropped 11 sen to RM4.87 and Unisem declined 10 sen to RM4.56.
Among the banks, Public Bank rose 15 sen to RM5.20, Maybank added eight sen to RM11.04, RHB Bank climbed three sen to RM8.47 and AmBank gained one sen to RM6.49.
CIMB declined one sen to RM7.70 and Hong Leong Bank lost 10 sen to RM22.02.
Meanwhile, stock market data showed foreign investors were net buyers on Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday, with net purchases of RM141mil.
Local institutions and retailers were net sellers, offloading RM136mil and RM5mil worth of equities, respectively.
On the forex market, the ringgit strengthened 0.12% to 4.0735 against the US dollar, trimming its year-to-date loss to 0.3%.
The local currency slipped 0.15% to 3.1613 against the Singapore dollar.
Asian markets closed broadly lower, led by sharp losses in Japan and South Korea, with the Nikkei 225 falling 2.79% and the Kospi tumbling 6.37%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index bucked the trend with a 1.33% gain, while China's CSI300 Index and Shanghai Composite each slipped 1.85%.
