KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 - Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed higher today in line with the rallies in other Asian markets after the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points to one per cent, dealers said.They said the key index reversed its earlier losses supported by gains in plantation stocks including IOI Corp, Sime Darby and KL Kepong.
"The strong rally in the regional markets spurred buying interest in the local market," a dealer said.
Asian indices closed higher with Japan's Nikkei climbing 817.86 points to end at 9,029.76, the highest close since Oct. 22. Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed up 1,627.78 points or 12.8 pct for the day's high of 14,329.85 and South Korea's Kospi ended higher by 11.95 percent to 1,084.72 points.
On the local front, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) gained 24.15 points or 2.91 percent to 853.56. It had opened higher by 1.03 points to 830.44.
The Industrial Index increased 36 points to 2,067.18, the Finance Index gained 194.33 points to 6,555.87 and the Plantation Index jumped 388.74 points to 3,520.41
The FBMEmas rose 172.12 points to 5,591.11, the FBM30 gained 185.43 points to 5,572.13, the FBM2BRD added 56.49 points to 4,199.20 while the FBMMesdaq Index declined 64.94 points to 3,238.19.
Gainers led losers by 526 to 181 while 170 counters were unchanged, 457 untraded and 26 others suspended.
Volume increased to 973.008 million shares valued at RM1.392 billion from the 650.626 million shares valued at RM1.186 billion yesterday.
Topping the most active counters was IOI Corp which gained 49 sen to RM2.74, followed by KNM which added 8.5 sen to 58.5 sen while Lion Industrie jumped 12 sen to 61.5 sen.
Of the other active counters, Scomi and SAAG Consolidated increased 2.5 sen each to 31.5 sen and 21.0 sen respectively, while Gamuda added nine sen to RM1.44.
Of the heavyweights, Sime Darby and MISC both increased 20 sen to RM6.10 and RM8.30 respectively, with Public Bank adding 10 sen to RM8.35 while Tenaga Nasional shed five sen to RM5.95.
Maybank rose 15 sen to RM5.15 with Bumiputra-Commerce gaining 35 sen to RM6.15 and Genting added 20 sen to RM4.20.
Volume on the Main Board increased to 868.744 million shares worth RM1.375 billion from 562.977 million shares worth RM1.173 billion yesterday.
Turnover on the Second Board rose to 39.081 million shares valued at RM11.745 million compared with 25.997 million shares worth RM7.158 million previously.
Volume on the Mesdaq Market however, declined to 31.356 million shares worth RM4.147 million against the 35.756 million shares worth RM5.493 million yesterday.
Call warrants jumped to 33.827 million shares valued at RM1.268 million from 25.895 million shares worth RM719,170 previously.
Direct business deals fell to 33.155 million shares worth RM18.151 million versus 51.439 million shares valued at RM45.522 million yesterday.
On a sectoral basis, consumer products accounted for 24.499 million shares traded on the Main Board, industrial products 233.201 million, construction 73.984 million, trade/services 201.469 million, technology 7.792 million, infrastructure 20.530 million, finance 55.983 million, hotels 1.050 million, properties 71.268 million, plantations 141.814 million, mining 249,000, REITs 1.558 million, closed/fund 1.885 million, ETF 103,400 and loans 33.357 million. - Bernama
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