At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 9.99 points, or 0.58%, to 1,740.88 from yesterday’s close of 1,730.89.
The market bellwether opened 1.73 points higher at 1,732.62, its lowest level for the day, and moved to an intraday high of 1,744.82 after 22 minutes of trading.
In the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 623 to 446, some 608 counters were unchanged, 1,013 counters were untraded and 61 were suspended.
Turnover slipped to 2.73 billion shares valued at RM3.43 billion from yesterday’s 3.06 billion shares valued at RM3.95 billion.
IPPFA Sdn Bhd director of investment strategy and country economist Sedek Jantan said the resilience of the FBM KLCI was supported by its heavy weighting in financial stocks, which helped cushion the index against broader market weakness.
“We view the recent two-day pullback as a healthy consolidation and an accumulation opportunity, particularly in banking stocks.
“Year-to-date, the Bursa Malaysia Financial Services Index has risen by more than 8%,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the local bourse outperformed most regional markets, which ended lower amid mixed cues from Wall Street overnight and weakness in technology stocks.
“Broader Asian markets closed mostly lower after a technology-led sell-off on Wall Street, as investors reassessed the sustainability of heavy artificial intelligence-related spending,” he said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank added 16 sen to RM11.80, Public Bank gained two sen to RM4.87, CIMB climbed 11 sen to RM8.58, and IHH Healthcare perked up 10 sen to RM8.96, while Tenaga Nasional slipped six sen to RM13.94.
On the most active list, Capital A shed two sen to 61.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange inched down 2.5 sen to 29.5 sen, Tanco Holdings advanced two sen to RM1.36, Zetrix AI inched up 0.5 sen to 80.5 sen, and SP Setia put on one sen to 98.5 sen.
Among the top gainers, Hong Leong Bank was up RM1.48 to RM25.80, Fraser & Neave Holdings rose RM1.34 to RM35.76, Hong Leong Financial Group added 64 sen to RM22.34, Petronas Dagangan increased 38 sen to RM21.20, and RHB Bank went up 35 sen to RM8.45.
Leading decliners were Nestle which dropped RM2.00 to RM112.00, United Plantations dipped 34 sen to RM30.24, Batu Kawan fell 22 sen to RM19.36, and Malaysian Pacific Industries shed 20 sen to RM32.00.
On the index board, the FBM Top 100 Index expanded 62.18 points to 12,562.02, the FBM Emas Index advanced 54.49 points to 12,745.99, and the FBM Mid 70 Index put on 42.15 points to 17,509.58.
In contrast, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 2.91 points to 12,275.32 and the FBM ACE Index erased 20.78 points to 4,723.00.
Sector-wise, the financial services index surged 373.84 points to 21,510.18, the energy index added 5.87 points to 758.93, while the plantation index eased 0.42 of-a-point to 8,364.56 and the industrial products and services index inched down 0.58 of-a-point to 175.56.
The Main Market volume fell to 1.58 billion units worth RM3.17 billion from Thursday’s 1.84 billion units worth RM3.65 billion.
Warrants turnover slipped to 748.94 million units worth RM103.08 million from 800.64 million units worth RM115.53 million previously.
The ACE Market volume narrowed to 392.11 million units worth RM150.43 million from 419.29 million units worth RM176.11 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 266.24 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (229.95 million), construction (148.36 million), technology (254.17 million), financial services (153.55 million), property (211.88 million), plantation (21.76 million), real estate investment trusts (23.19 million), closed-end fund (53,300), energy (80.33 million), healthcare (97.34 million), telecommunications and media (35.53 million), transportation and logistics (24.82 million), utilities (37.41 million), and business trusts (90,600).