KUALA LUMPUR: Blue-chip rally spurred by fund buying pushed the FBM KLCI to its highest in almost 12 months.
The FBM KLCI rose 0.7%, or 10.35 points for the day to 1,487.61 and wrapped up the week at 2.26% higher than the week before.
In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 745 to 351, with 6.62 billion shares worth RM3.7bil changing hands.
In today’s session, 17 of the KLCI-component stocks closed higher while 10 counters ended lower.
Among the component stocks, YTL Power rose 22 sen to RM3.22, YTL added 17 sen to RM2.22 and Tenaga climbed eight sen.
Among the banks, Maybank added three sen to RM9.06, Public Bank rose four sen to RM4.33, CIMB climbed five sen to RM1.49, RHB Bank added four sen to RM5.50, Hong Leong Bank advanced eight sen to RM18.96 and AmBank gained 10 sen to RM4.21.
On the broader market, Malaysian Pacific Industries
rose 52 sen to RM25.52, Heineken added 42 sen to RM24 and Ideal Capital gained 30 sen to RM3.24.
Rapid tumbled RM1.78 to RM25.92, YNH Property slid 25 sen to RM4.10 and Sungei Bagan Rubber fell 12 sen to RM4.06.
In terms of fund flows, foreign funds and local institutions were net buyers on Thursday acquiring equities worth RM62mil and RM109mil respectively.
Local retailers emerged as net sellers with total disposals valued at RM170mil.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was quoted at 4.6543, down 0.42% against the US dollar.
Asian bourses closed broadly lower today, with Japan's Nikkei 225 adding 0.27%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.35%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed down 0.66% and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.85%.
