KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 — Positive regional sentiment influenced Bursa Malaysia to trade broadly higher at midday today, with the benchmark index staying above the 1,800-point level, dealers said.
At mid-day, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was quoted at 1,802.59, rising 4.91 points, and after hovering between 1,801.83 and 1,807.27 throughout the morning session.
A dealer said the local market was reacting positively to the Japanese Prime Minister’s vow to focus on economic reforms, coupled with the overnight gains on Wall Street.
In addition, gains in the Shanghai Composite Index sparked global confidence among investors over China’s growth recovery, even as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the world’s second largest economy would not grow any slower than seven per cent this year.
Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 65.65 points to 14,723.69, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 438.24 points to 21,854.74, Singapore’s Straits Times increased 13.03 points to 3,247.38 and the Shanghai Composite expanded 43.43 points to 2,048.19.
Back home, the Finance Index surged 77.43 points to 17,331.76, the Industrial Index increased 15.44 points to 3,057.7, and the Plantation Index advanced 15.97 points to 8,423.14.
The FBM Emas Index rose 36.75 points to 12,574.09, the FBMT100 was up 37.66 points to 12,309.48, the FBM 70 Index climbed 61.31 points to 14,503.03 and the FBM ACE Index added 1.81 points to 4,997.6.
Gainers thumped losers 331 to 293, with 306 counters unchanged, 658 untraded and 14 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 676.921 million shares worth RM908.867 million.
Among actives, Tiger Synergy inched up half-a-sen to 23 sen and Sersol gained 6.5 sen to 41 sen, while Flonic Hi-Tec was flat at 11 sen.
Newly-listed ABM Fujiya, opened at a five cent premium over its offer price of 60 sen per share this morning, and was traded 3.5 sen better at 63.5 sen at midday, with 22.249 million lots changing hands.
For the heavyweights, Maybank gained two sen to RM10.68, CIMB rose three sento RM8.51, while both Sime Darby and Maxis added one sen each to RM9.51 and RM7.06 respectively, and Axiata Group was flat at RM6.83. – Bernama
