KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) on Bursa Malaysia climbed to a new high this morning following persistent buying momentum in the local market.

At 9:01 am, the barometer index stood at 1,884.75 points, up 1.41 points, after opening 1.54 point higher at 1,884.75 points.

Gains in the composite index were lifted by buying in blue chips and selected heavyweights.

Market sentiment turned positive following the announcement of Malaysia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for the first quarter of this year by Bank Negara Malaysia last Friday.

Malaysia registered a strong growth of 6.2 per cent in the first three months of the year compared with 5.1 per cent registered in the fourth quarter of 2014, driven by a stronger expansion in domestic demand and a turnaround in net exports.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 23.02 points to 17,106.87 points, the Industrial Index gained 3.55 points to 3,210.26 points but the Plantation Index fell 1.95 points to 9,364.16 points.

The FBM Emas Index added 10.85 points to 13,006.32, the FBMT100 Index garnered 7.21 points to 12,652.01, the FBM Ace rose 24.12 points to 6,693.52 points and the FBM 70 slipped 1.06 points to 14,031.05 points.

Gainers outpaced losers 130 to 46 while 147 counters were unchanged, 1,304 untraded and 20 others were suspended.     

Turnover stood at 97.626 million shares worth RM29.77 million.

Among heavyweights, Maybank fell two sen to RM9.93, Public Bank rose six sen to RM19.90, TNB rose two sen to RM12.08, CIMB gained three sen to RM7.35 and Axiata was flat at RM6.99.      

Among actives, MAS shed three sen to 16 sen while 1 Utopia and Nexgram Holdings were half-a-sen higher each at 6.5 sen and 12.5 sen, respectively.

Sona Petroleum was one sen higher to 57 sen while Sumatec Resources was flat at 26.5 sen. — Bernama