KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — Bursa Malaysia remained firm at mid-day, led by gains in heavyweights such as Petronas Dagangan, Nestle and United Plantations.
At the lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.36 points better at 1,864.29, after opening at 1,862.9.
Petronas Dagangan and Nestle soared 30 sen each to RM30.50 and RM68.80 respectively, while United Plantations surged 28 sen to RM25.76.
Turnover stood at 1.34 billion shares worth RM870.39 million.
Bargain-hunters outpaced profit-takers as gainers led losers 371 to 366, while 320 counters were unchanged, 571 untraded and 25 others suspended.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Research said with bargain-hunting activity seen on banking stocks, the benchmark finally broke the envisaged resistance level of 1,860 and ended at 1,862 yesterday.
“If the FBM KLCI manages to maintain its posture above 1,862 points in the next two to three days, the index is poised to retest the 1,870 and 1,882 levels,” it said in a note.
On the scoreboard, the Industrial Index trimmed 4.37 points to 3,191.5, but the Finance Index added 27.16 points to 17,148.44 and the Plantation Index gained 5.16 points to 8,932.28.
The FBM 70 rose 19.75 points to 14,196.52, the FBM Ace soared 33.68 points to 6,942.2, the FBM Emas Index was 12.06 points higher at 12,947.75, and the FBMT100 Index increased 11.04 points to 12,577.79.
Among actives, 1 Utopia edged up 1.0 sen to 9.0 sen, PDZ Holdings and Asian Pac added 0.5 sen each to 16.5 sen and 30.5 sen respectively. Hovid rose 1.5 sen to 37.5 sen.
As for heavyweights, Maybank was 3.0 sen higher at RM10, Public Bank and CIMB both gained 2.0 sen to RM20.22 and RM7.52 respectively, Axiata rose 1.0 sen to RM6.61, and TNB was flat at RM11.94. — Bernama
