KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 ― Banking stocks chalked up strong gains in the morning session, pushing the main index, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 9.35 points to 1,598.80 at the midday break.

At the opening bell, the index opened 1.03 points lower at 1,588.42.

Public Bank rose 44 sen to RM18.08, CIMB Group was up six sen to RM3.59, Maybank gained five sen to RM7.87, RHB inched three sen to RM5.03 and Hong Leong Financial added eight sen to RM13.90. 

The banking counters had pushed up the index by 6.17 points.

Their strong performance today erased yesterday’s loss after coming under pressure due to market pullback.

Overall, winners edged losers 519 to 387 while 437 counters were unchanged, 628 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Total volume increased to 5.45 billion worth RM2.69 billion.

Despite the upbeat momentum, the KLCI is still facing the 1,600 immediate resistance level.

As for the actives, Hubline, Lambo and Priceworth all inched half-a-sen to 8.5 sen, five sen and three sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index edged up 54.29 points to 11,308.97, the FBMT 100 Index appreciated 51.46 points to 11,164.16 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 42.33 points stronger at 13,107.55.

The FBM 70 rose 2.85 points to 14,154.55 and the FBM ACE was 198.69 points better at 7,644.24.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index improved 130.95 points to 13,515.44, the Plantation Index declined 9.83 points to 7,022.15 and the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.54 of-a-point to 138.79. ― Bernama