KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher today, lifted again by gains in Petronas-linked and finance counters, dealers said.
At the lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 5.91 points to 1,785.23, with the market barometer moving between 1,777.87 and 1,785.37.
Petronas Dagangan led gains for the Petronas-linked counters in climbing 66 sen to RM28.66, followed by Petronas Gas, which together with CIMB and Maybank, improved 12 sen each to RM20.84, RM7.98 and RM10.52 respectively.
A dealer said the market started slowly in the morning session after a two and a half day break for Hari Raya, and took some time to “warm-up” before interest in the oil and gas and finance counters, kicked in.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index jumped 112.861 points to 17,012.97, with the Industrial Index adding 4.1 points to 3,014.52, but the Plantation Index lost 7.27 points to 8,304.33.
The FBM Emas Index increased 41.32 points to 12,449.79, and the FBMT100 was up 40.319 points to 12,184.89, with the FBM ACE Index chalking up 85.58 points to 5,304.50, as the FBM 70 Index improved 45.83 points to 14,330.12.
Gainers led losers 372 to 276, with 285 counters unchanged, 640 untraded and 11 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 896.54 million shares worth RM776.99 million.
Among actives, Sona Petroleum and Instacom edged up 1.5 sen each to 46.5 sen and 40 sen respectively, while Daya Materials and Astral Supreme gained one sen each to 34 sen and 23 sen, as Eti Tech earned half-a-sen to 8.5 sen.
For the heavyweights, Axiata jumped four sen to RM6.89, Petronas Chemicals earned two sen to RM6.60 and Tenaga gained one sen to RM8.94.
Public Bank was unchanged at RM17.28, while Sime Darby slipped two sen to RM9.84. — Bernama
