KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed marginally higher following the emergence of late buying interest in selected heavyweights such as gloves, banking and oil and gas counters, said an analyst. 

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 0.35 of-a-point to 1,606.32, compared with Monday's close of 1,605.97.

Bursa Malaysia and its subsidiaries were closed on Tuesday in conjunction with the Maulidur Rasul holiday.

The benchmark index, which opened 5.86 points firmer at 1,611.83, moved between 1,601.31 and 1,613.35 throughout the day. 

However, market breadth was negative with losers leading gainers 619 to 511, while 447 counters were unchanged, 706 untraded and one counter suspended.

Turnover fell to 4.29 billion units worth RM3.11 billion against 4.61 billion units worth RM2.91 billion on Monday. 

Top gainers were Nestle which added seven sen to RM134.00, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd which increased 16 sen to RM18.54 and Petronas Gas which rose two sen to RM16.98. 

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng said the FBM KLCI's performance was in line with its regional peers, taking their cue from the overnight gains on the Wall Street following the higher US corporate earnings and foreign buying.

"We believe the outlook for the local equities market will remain positive with persistent buying from foreign funds as we noticed that our regional peers are enjoying foreign funds inflow.

"As for the rest of the week, we expect the FBM KLCI to trend within the 1,600-1,610 range amidst some intermittent profit-taking activities. We see immediate resistance at 1,620 and immediate support at 1,565," he told Bernama. 

Among the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM8.31, Public Bank gained four sen to RM4.27, Petronas Chemicals increased five sen to RM8.80, while Tenaga and IHH Healthcare eased six sen each to RM6.60 and RM9.76, respectively.

As for the actives, Daya Materials, M3Tech and Joe Holding each added half-a-sen to two sen, 6.5 sen, and five sen, respectively, while Macpie was flat at 13 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went up 3.14 points to 11,817.52, the FBMT 100 Index added 2.83 points to 11,457.11, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 19.67 points to 12,873.98, the FBM 70 strengthened 2.20 points to 15,485.48, and the FBM ACE gained 43.41 points to 7,285.12.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index leapt 92.47 points to 15,937.77, the Industrial Products and Services Index slid 0.96 of-a-point to 212.45, and the Plantation Index fell 10.83 points to 7,027.47.