KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher in line with the regional bourses amid optimism of investors fresh from the Lunar New Year celebration.

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia (FBM KLCI) rose 9.89 points to 1,609.31 after moving between 1,607.00 and 1,614.92 throughout the morning session.

The index opened 7.58 points higher at 1,607.00 compared to last Thursday’s close of 1,599.42.

On the broader market, gainers thumped losers 702 to 348, while 449 counters were unchanged, 662 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Volume stood at 5.56 billion units worth RM2.56 billion.

Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.71 per cent to 30,025.61, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng improved 0.45 per cent to 30,173.57 and Singapore’s STI gained 0.42 per cent to 2,937.9.

In a note today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said that despite the country’s sharper-than-expected economic contraction of 3.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020, the FBM KLCI inched up ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday as investors might have priced in the impact of the ongoing movement control order.

"We expect the positive sentiment on Wall Street overnight may spillover to stocks on the local front as market players should refocus after the long break ahead of the full blown reporting season. Meanwhile, we noticed crude oil price surged above US$62 firmly last week,” it said.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Axiata rose 10 sen each to RM8.08 and RM3.53, respectively, MISC added 22 sen to RM6.48, Tenaga improved 12 sen to RM10.18, and TM increased 13 sen to RM6.73.

Of the actives, Dagang NeXchange gained 8.5 sen to 51.5 sen, DGB Asia and Luster Industries picked up two sen each to 10 sen and 24.5 sen, respectively, and Techna-X improved 2.5 sen to 16 sen. However, AT Systematization was flat at 16 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index bagged 76.55 points to 11,738.37, the FBMT 100 Index expanded 68.68 points to 11,448.72, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 93.64 points higher at 13,213.89.

The FBM 70 rose 85.79 points to 15,357.44 and the FBM ACE increased 217.28 points to 11,100.52.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index climbed 75.79 points to 15,114.26, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 1.16 points to 181.73, and the Plantation Index increased 42.36 points to 7,188.05. — Bernama