KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 ― Bursa Malaysia reversed early losses to end the morning session higher on bargain hunting in value stocks such as IHH, MISC and Digi. 

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 2.87 points to 1,598.16 from 1,595.29 at yesterday's close.

The index was 3.63 points weaker at 1,591.66 at 9 am and moved between 1,585.44 and 1,599.29 throughout the morning session.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 569 to 403, while 456 counters were unchanged, 795 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 3.95 billion shares worth RM1.84 billion.

The local bourse bucked the decline in regional markets, which saw Japan's Nikkei 225 dip 1.61 per cent to 28,529.69, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.9 per cent at 27,954.52, Singapore's Straits Times Index erased 0.18 per cent to 3,126.16 and Korea's Kospi lost 0.33 per cent at 2,994.84.

Meanwhile, back home, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) reported today that the country's Consumer Price Index rose 0.1 per cent to 122.5 in February compared with 122.4 in the same month last year.

The department said Malaysia’s near-term economic prospects remained upbeat with the Leading Index increasing to 110.0 points in January 2021 from 101.7 points in the same month last year for an annual growth of 8.2 per cent.

This has helped the local bourse to gain positive momentum amid a lack of market moving catalysts in the local market.

Heavyweights, IHH climbed nine sen to RM5.40, MISC added 15 sen to RM6.84, Digi was seven sen better at RM3.70, Maxis inched up five sen at RM4.65, while both IOI Corp and Tenaga improved six sen to RM4.30 and RM10.76, respectively.

As for active counters, GOcean added half-a-sen to 6.5 sen, SMI was 4.5 sen better at 22.5 sen, DNex rose five sen at 93.5 sen, MMAG increased one sen to 50.5 sen, while Nexgram was flat at  five sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index advanced 6.22 points to 11,735.34, the FBMT 100 improved seven points to 11,410.87, and the FBM Emas Shariah gained 35.65 points to 13,056.54 and the FBM ACE increased 37.29 points to 10,548.90.

However, the FBM 70 reduced 12.75 points to 15,467.32.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index lost 73.62 points to 15,211.60 while the Plantation Index rose 39.87 points to 7,175.07 and the Industrial Products and Services Index increased 0.51 of-a-point to 190.93. ― Bernama