KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 ― Shares on Bursa Malaysia extended their gains to end the morning session higher, supported by persistent buying interest in heavyweight counters.

At lunch break, the benchmark FBM KLCI ended at 1,828.34, up 6.28 points, after fluctuating between 1,823.54 and 1,828.73 throughout the morning session.

Kenanga Research in its note said the FBM KLCI is likely to continue its range-bound consolidation in the coming week, and is likely to move within a 1,813 to 1,838 sideways range.

“Immediate downside support is well pegged at 1,816. Nonetheless, the long-term trend is still up and the current weakness should be viewed as an  opportunity for investors to nimble on quality stocks for longer-term gain,” it added.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index added 21.49 points to 16,448.08, the Plantation Index rose 64.19 points to 8,992.27 and the Industrial Index gained  33.87 points to 3,185.36.

The FBM Emas Index increased 36.36 points to 12,672.61, the FBMT100 Index was 35.58 points better at 12,342.33, the FBM 70 rose 13.73 points to 13,958.42 and the FBM Ace improved 18.94 points to 6,615.36.   

Market breadth was positive, with gainers outnumbering losers 345 to 281, while 327 counters were unchanged, 678 untraded and 15 others suspended.

Turnover totalled 874.18 million shares worth RM846.81 million

Among actives, Xidelang rose three sen to 42.5 sen, Malaysia Airlines was flat at 24 sen while Xidelang-WA lost half-a-sen to 12.5 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM9.62, Tenaga Nasional added two sen to RM11.96 and CIMB earned four sen to RM7.07. ― Bernama