KUALA LUMPUR: The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closed firm, but off the day's high, on mild profit taking activities which emerged at the eleventh hour. The index finished 5.44 points better at 1,697.93, after breaking pass the psychological level of 1,700 points in early trade today. It opened 3.62 points better at 1,696.11 after finishing at 1,692.49 on Friday. Unabated buying support for oil and gas counters, spurred by high oil prices, aided the index's rise to 1,710.20 at 9.11 am, a level last seen in October, 2015. The Brent crude stood at US$39.23 per barrel, up 51 cents. Dealers said the index managed to stay above the 1,700 points level until 4.08 pm when buying momentum began to fizzle out a little prompted by selling activities. Meanwhile, Petronas Dagangan rose 30 sen to RM24.74, SapuraKencana added one sen to RM2.10 and Petronas Gas was 18 sen higher at RM22.50. On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index added 1.12 points to 11,723.76, the FBMT100 Index improved 7.79 points to 11,438.52 but the FBM Emas Syariah dipped 36.08 points to 12,388.21. The FBM 70 shed 96.11 points for 12,850.42 while the FBM Ace gained 11.67 points to 5,695.75. Sector-wise, the Industrial Index inched up 1.52 points to 3,293.34, the Finance Index improved 29.52 points to 14,393.48 and the Plantation Index added 38.83 points to 7,857.92. There were 594 losers to 317 gainers, while 283 counters were unchanged, 539 untraded and 19 others were suspended. Volume rose to 2.44 billion shares, valued at RM2.45 billion, from 1.78 billion shares, worth RM2.16 billion, recorded last Friday. Among heavyweights, Maybank rose eight sen to RM8.83, TNB added two sen to RM13.30 but Public Bank was flat at RM18.80. Of actives, AirAsia X advanced 1.5 sen to 31.5 sen, Bumi Armada fell 21 sen to 79 sen while Airasia was four sen lower at RM1.69. Main Market volume advanced to 1.73 billion units, worth RM2.33 billion, versus Friday's 1.34 billion units valued at RM2.07 billion. Turnover on the ACE Market went up to 465.30 million shares, worth RM78.36 million, from 252.13 million shares, worth RM45.38 million, transacted on Friday. Warrants widened to 237.26 million units, worth RM40.57 million, against 178.95 million units, valued at RM41.05 million, recorded previously. Consumer products accounted for 221.17 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (267.33 million), construction (36.94 million), trade and services (975.25 million), technology (20.79 million), infrastructure (8.21 million), SPAC (22.65 million), finance (68.64 million), hotels (1.09 million), properties (65.27 million), plantations (27.16 million), mining (1,10), REITs (19.41 million) and closed/fund (46,000). The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM161.76 per gramme, down RM1.29 from RM163.05 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama

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