BURSA MALAYSIA: Shares End Higher; FBM KLCI +0.5%

Bursa Malaysia closed broadly higher Thursday in line with the firmer regional bourses following a rebound in the US market, dealers said.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) gained 5.65 points, or 0.479 percent, to close at 1,186.19. It opened 3.37 points higher at 1,183.91 this morning.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 120.16 points or 1.30 percent to finish at 9,361.61 while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 11.46 points to 1,005.81. The market boost came following comments from the US Federal Reserve that the recession was stabilising, dealers said. The much awaited two-day monetary policy meeting of the U.S. Fed concluded that "economic activity is leveling out" and maintained its near-zero interest rate policy.

At the local stock exchange, investors interest was seen almost across the board. The leaders were plantation, finance and technology-related counters. The plantation stock, KLK and IOI Corp, which increased 64 sen and eight sen respectively to RM13.6 and RM5.25 sen, pushed the market higher.

The FBM KLCI saw a intraday high of 1,188.03 amid some profit taking activities.

Technical analyst with MIMB Investment Bank, Mohd Nazri Khan said the market was in technical correction as the rally in equities recently had outpaced earnings prospects.

"The bull market is just getting started," he said adding that the correction was probably shallow between 1,140 and 1,160 level.

Moving forward, Mohd Nazri said the market's future direction will come from the crude palm oil and US dollar movements.

At close, the Finance Index increased 43.41 points to 9,677.97, the Industrial Index rose 1.03 points to 2,597.26 and the FBMEmas Index gained 56.31 points to 8,052.51. The Plantation Index increased 114.76 points to 5,943, the FBM Top 100 rose 43.49 points to 7,799.06 and the FBM ACE Index was 154.58 points higher at 4,317.7.

Advancers outnumbered losers by 568 to 166 while 194 counters were unchanged and 309 untraded.Turnover rose to 1.139 billion shares valued at RM1.679 billion from 1.103 billion shares valued at RM1.739 billion yesterday.