Bursa shares close higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices reversed earlier losses to close higher on Bursa Malaysia, led by selected blue chips and the bullish sentiment in regional equity market, a dealer said.

Most Asian bourses gained after the Abu Dhabi government agreed to channel US$10 billion (RM34 billion) to the Dubai Financial Support Fund that will be used to satisfy a series of obligations on Dubai World.

At close, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KUALA LUMPUR COMPOSITE INDEX [] (FBM KLCI) ended 5.45 points at 1,265.45.

The dealer said Abu Dhabi government's support for Dubai World was good news that alleviated worries, with bank and CONSTRUCTION [] stocks responding positively to the news.

The FBM Emas Index gained 27.23 points to 8,421.15, the FBM Top 100 Index increased 33.24 points to 8,242.54 and the FBM70 [] Index climbed 23.58 points to 8,129.45.

The FBM Ace Index, however, declined 13.60 points to 4,226.60.

The Finance Index surged 36.61 points to 10,926.26, the PLANTATION [] Index rose 12.88 points to 6,258.78 and the INDUSTRIAL INDEX [] was 7.13 points higher at 2,677.94.

There were 249 gainers and 361 losers with 229 other stocks were unchanged. Trading volume declined to 515.401 million shares, valued at RM707.070
million, from last Friday's 528.994 million shares worth RM750.405 million.

Interior design firm LCL Corp, which responded positively to the Dubai news, emerged as the day's volume leader, gaining one sen to 23 sen.

Earlier, the company's shares came under pressure after LCL claimed it could not repay RM72 million owing to two banks because of the Dubai debt crisis.

Meanwhile, DSC Solutions and SAAG Consolidated declined 15.5 sen and 0.5 sen to 46 sen and 18 sen respectively, while KNM Group perked 1.5 sen to 73 sen.

Among blue chips, Sime Darby was flat at RM8.95, while Maybank and Maxis both gained one sen each to RM6.77 and RM5.38, respectively. CIMB added 16 sen to RM13.

Turnover on the Main Market decreased to 433.056 million shares, worth RM678.281 million, compared with last Friday's 444.771 million shares, valued at
RM721.677 million.

Warrants declined to 18.409 million shares, worth RM3.711 million, from Friday's turnover of 26.426 million shares, valued at RM5.225 million.

However, volume on the ACE Market increased to 60.980 million units, valued at RM23.231 million, from 54.918 million units, worth RM22.116 million, recorded
previously.

Consumer products accounted for 23.748 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 87.446 million, construction 22.689 million,
trading and services 169.223 million, TECHNOLOGY [] 18.933 million, infrastructure 9.473 million, finance 43.442 million, hotels 4.066 million, PROPERTIES [] 43.339
million, plantations 9.033 million, mining nil, REITs 1.655 million and closed/fund 4,000. -- Bernama