KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 25): Bursa Malaysia snapped six days of losses to trend broadly higher with the composite index finishing at its intraday high, rising 1.92%, driven by improving market sentiment across the region, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) jumped 28.23 points to end at 1,495.49 compared with Wednesday's close of 1,467.26.

The benchmark index opened 3.11 points better on Thursday morning at its intraday low of 1,470.37 but gradually gathered momentum to rally towards closing.

On the broader market, gainers beat losers 664 to 294, while 366 counters were unchanged, 1,008 untraded, and seven others suspended.

Total turnover fell to 2.64 billion units worth RM2.10 billion from 2.88 billion units worth RM1.72 billion on Wednesday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI closed sharply higher as investors took opportunity to bargain hunt for stocks at lower levels following six days of losses.

“We reckon the near-term direction of the local market is still very much dependent on the regional volatility. Nonetheless, we believe the uptrend will remain intact given the continuous buying support from foreign funds and cheap valuations of local equities.

“As such, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend higher within the 1,490-1,505 region towards the weekend,” he told Bernama.

He said that the key regional markets were also mostly higher following the positive cues on Wall Street overnight and China's pledge of more steps to shore up its economy gave some boost to market sentiment.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.58% to 28,479.01, South Korea’s Kospi improved 1.22% to 2,477.26, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 3.63% to 19,968.38, while China's SSE Composite Index put on 0.97% to 3,246.25.

Among the heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) perked up three sen to RM8.84, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd rose 15 sen to RM8.65, and IHH Healthcare Bhd, too, gained 15 sen to RM6.37. CIMB Group Holdings Bhd increased four sen to RM5.40.

Of the actives, TWL Holdings Bhd added half-a-sen to 5.5 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd climbed six sen to RM1.02, Dagang NeXchange Bhd improved 3.5 sen to 88 sen, and Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd eased one sen to 3.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM ACE Index jumped 115.9 points to 4,990.87, FBMT 100 Index added 175.68 points to 10,366.01, FBM Emas Shariah Index soared 253.02 points to 10,756.84, FBM 70 perked up 135.22 points to 12,736.22, while the FBM Emas Index improved 175.48 points to 10,625.83.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 97.68 points to 16,648.63, Plantation Index advanced 92.8 points to 6,953.63, Industrial Products and Services Index was 3.16 points better at 183.05, while the Energy Index climbed by 25.66 points to 732.85.

The Main Market volume fell to 1.71 billion shares worth RM1.75 billion from 2.11 billion shares worth RM1.5 billion on Wednesday.

Warrants' turnover expanded to 453.52 million units valued at RM66.12 million from 420.03 million units valued at RM59.27 million on Wednesday.

The ACE Market volume swelled to 475.13 million shares worth RM291.75 million from 344.52 million shares worth RM146.23 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 248.33 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (477.95 million), construction (49.17 million), technology (174.87 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (64.1 million), property (198.3 million), plantation (28.82 million), REITs (2.72 million), closed/fund (nil), energy (288.24 million), healthcare (96.34 million), telecommunications and media (37.45 million), transportation and logistics (25.14 million), and utilities (17.95 million).