KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI started the week on a firm footing, aided by gains in banking stocks.
The market bellwether finished higher on Monday, adding 10.76 points, or 0.66% to 1,629.82. The gain is the biggest since rising 1.09% on July 3.
Gainers outnumbered losers by 738 to 491, while 480 counters traded unchanged. Trading volume was brisk at 5.4 billion shares valued at RM3.95bil.
Dealers said weak data from China did not affect the sentiment on the local bourse.
Reuters reported that China’s economy grew 4.7% in April-June, official data showed, its slowest since the first quarter of 2023 and missing a 5.1% analysts' forecast in a Reuters poll.
Maybank closed 10 sen higher at RM10.14, adding 1.7477 points to the index while CelcomDigi added eight sen to RM3.68, nudging the index up by 1.3593 points.
Hong Leong Bank gained 14 sen to RM19.30, RHB Bank added nine sen to RM5.69, CIMB rose five sen to RM7.18 and Public Bank climbed two sen to RM4.13.
Laggards among the FBM KLCI component stocks were PETRONAS Chemicals, YTL Corp, YTL Power and QL Resources.
On the broader market, Malaysian Pacific Industries
jumped 64 sen to RM40.52, Heineken added 40 sen to RM22.28 and Apollo Food rose 33 sen to RM6.93.
F&N fell 26 sen to RM30.24, Bintulu Port lost 15 sen to RM6.35 and Hong Leong Industries Bhd gave up 14 sen to RM11.18.
Meanwhile, regional markets closed mixed. South Korea’s Kospi closed up 0.14%. China’s CSI 300 Index rose 0.11% while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.09%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.52%.
Japan's Nikkei market was shut for a holiday.
