Bursa Malaysia closed higher on Thursday, led by selective buying in key counters, as investors absorbed corporate earnings and maintained a cautious stance on broader market sentiment.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBMKLCI) advanced 4.66 points, or 0.29%, to 1,592.87. The index moved between a low of 1,589.88 and a high of 1,596.02 during the session. Meanwhile, the broader market showed mixed performance, with the FBM70 sliding 67.24 points, or 0.40%, to 16,536.22.
Other key indices were marginally higher, with the FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia (F4GBM) up 1.36 points to 955.88, the FBM Emas index rising 18.08 points to 11,800.91, and the FBM Shariah index adding 18.59 points to 11,717.93.
Among the most active stocks, Tanco gained 1 sen to close at RM0.74 with 59.8 million shares traded. Petronas Chemicals rose 58 sen to RM4.76 on 56.7 million shares, while Nexgram advanced 6 sen to RM0.45 on 49.4 million shares. LCTITAN added 2.5 sen to RM0.59 on 42.5 million shares, and GPacket remained flat at 4 sen with 39.4 million shares changing hands.
Market watchers noted that investors were taking a selective approach, favouring counters with strong earnings updates while remaining cautious amid ongoing external market uncertainties.
