Malaysian Shares End Higher On Last-Minute Buying

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 (Bernama) -- Malaysian shares on Bursa Malaysia ended higher today on last minute buying, with consumer stocks leading the top gainers list. At close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) ended 4.15 points better at 1,672.05 from yesterday's close of 1,667.9. After opening 0.46 of-a-point better at 1,668.36 this morning, the local index moved between 1,665.94 and 1,673.57 throughout the day. Gainers outpaced losers 414 to 368, with 368 counters unchanged, 575 untraded and 18 others suspended. Volume jumped to 2.68 billion shares worth RM2.1 billion from 1.8 billion shares worth RM1.45 billion yesterday. A dealer said the FBM KLCI started on a bearish tone this morning, weighed down by profit-taking activities following last week's bullish performance. "However, the trend reversed during the last 10 minutes of the day due to bargain-hunting activities," he added. Among top gainers were BAT, up 86 sen to RM46.28, Panasonic which rose 42 sen to RM31.30 and PPB Group adding 30 sen to RM16.38. Top losers, on the other hand were Petronas Gas, down 42 sen to RM20.98, while TNB and Shell both edged down 12 sen to RM13.80 and RM2.49 respectively. Among heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank gained two sen each to RM8.28 and RM20.02 respectively, Petronas Chemicals easing three sen to RM7.17 and Sime Darby flat at RM8.45. On actives, Sumatec lost one sen to 8.5 sen, Hovid was 4.5 sen lower at 30 sen and IFCA MSC rose nine sen to 35 sen. Meanwhile, ACE market debutant HLT Global Bhd rose 9.5 sen to 54.5 sen, with 33.03 million shares traded. At the opening bell, the stock rose 10 sen to 55 sen with 5.37 million shares traded. The FBM Emas Index increased 26.44 points to 11,684.98, as the FBMT 100 Index rose 27.71 points to 11,391.46, with the FBM Emas Shariah Index 2.34 points better at 12,233.46. The FBM Ace surged 89.56 points to 5,006.78 and the FBM 70 was 30 points better at 13,254.42. Sector-wise, the Industrial Index gained 5.78 points to 3,180.42, the Finance Index jumped 73.72 points to 14,696.66 and the Plantation Index was 7.89 points higher at 7,900. -- BERNAMA