At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 11.31 points, or 0.66%, to 1,721.70 from Wednesday’s close of 1,710.39.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI closed higher, supported by resilient buying interest in selected blue chips and improving stability in the index.
“While external uncertainties continue to linger, the local market has shown signs of underlying support, with bargain-hunting emerging on dips. Investors are likely to concentrate on resilient, fundamentally strong sectors while maintaining a cautious stance on riskier positions,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, he noted that key regional markets finished mostly lower as investors adopted a wait-and-see approach amid the heightened West Asia conflict despite the extension of the ceasefire.
The benchmark index opened 5.16 points higher at 1,715.55, and moved between 1,714.41 and 1,723.51 throughout the day.
In the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 706 to 485, while 562 counters were unchanged, 1,018 untraded and 43 suspended.
Turnover expanded to 3.48 billion units valued at RM3.1 billion from 3.19 billion units valued at RM2.69 billion on Wednesday.
Among heavyweights, Maybank was unchanged at RM11.22, Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional added eight sen each to RM4.84 and RM14.60 respectively, CIMB Group gained four sen to RM7.78, IHH Healthcare improved four sen to RM8.85, Telekom Malaysia climbed nine sen to RM7.09, and Axiata Group advanced three sen to RM2.28.
On the most active list, Zetrix AI perked up half-a-sen to 86.5 sen, ACE Market debutant AMS Advanced Material gained 1.5 sen to 30.5 sen, Velesto Energy slipped one sen to 32 sen, AirAsia X declined seven sen to RM1.23, and Bumi Armada rose three sen to 41.5 sen.
Top gainers included Malaysian Pacific Industries which put on 70 sen to RM36.34, Dutch Lady Milk advanced 48 sen to RM32.86, Petronas Chemicals jumped 33 sen to RM5.55, and Kelington Group garnered 29 sen to RM5.98.
As for top losers, Nestle dipped 74 sen to RM98, United Plantations dropped 32 sen to RM33.40, Fraser & Neave slipped 22 sen to RM30.70, Hong Leong Industries lost 20 sen to RM17.38, and MISC slid 20 sen to RM8.10.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index advanced 88.14 points to 12,706.16, the FBMT 100 Index rose 93.34 points to 12,546.93, the FBM Emas Shariah Index jumped 84.17 points to 12,565.36, the FBM 70 Index soared 180.98 points to 18,016.25, and the FBM ACE Index climbed 14.12 points to 4,635.67.
By sector, the financial services index increased 129.28 points to 20,282.23, the industrial products and services index edged up 4.08 points to 189.96, the energy index improved 6.05 points to 828.09, while the plantation index fell 31.11 points to 8,880.52.
The Main Market volume declined to 1.76 billion units valued at RM2.77 billion from 1.93 billion units valued at RM2.42 billion on Wednesday.
Warrants turnover swelled to 1.21 billion units worth RM151.16 million from 872.24 million units worth RM119.92 million previously.
The ACE Market volume expanded to 508.12 million units valued at RM178.82 million compared to 392.46 million units valued at RM149.79 million yesterday.
Consumer products and services counters accounted for 242.63 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (286.72 million), construction (153.73 million), technology (318.02 million), financial services (76.27 million), property (157.78 million), plantation (45.97 million), real estate investment trusts (22.26 million), closed-end fund (55,600), energy (232.14 million), healthcare (113.09 million), telecommunications and media (36.78 million), transportation and logistics (43.24 million), utilities (37.27 million), and business trusts (64,400).