KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — Persistent buying momentum in bluechips helped push Bursa Malaysia to close the morning session on a firm note.
At 12.30pm, the key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 12.67 points higher at 1,602.86 after moving in a range of between 1,592.67 and 1,605.73.
The rise in the composite index was mainly contributed by CIMB and Sime Darby with the accumulation of 2.83 points.
A dealer said sentiment in the market recovered, boosted by positive overnight gains posted on Wall Street.
As for local development, the dealer said investors would keep watch on Bank Negara Malaysia’s decision on the overnight policy rate later today.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 80.03 points higher at 10,944.35, the FBMT100 Index advanced 77.68 points to 10,695.5 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 68.22 points to 11,449.88.
The FBM 70 rose 58.89 points to 11,635.09 and the FBM Ace leaped 89.28 points to 5,055.49.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index surged 92.32 points to 14,080.69, the Industrial Index gained 18.14 points to 3,077.4, and the Plantation Index added 5.29 points to 6,839.69.
Market breadth was positive with gainers trouncing losers 415 to 173 with 262 counters unchanged, 926 counters untraded and nine others suspended.
Turnover was thin at 944.36 million shares worth RM644.04 million.
Among actives, IFCA gained 5.5 sen to 62.5 sen but iDimension slipped a sen to 12.5 sen. AirAsia, however, was flat at 95.5 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Axiata perked four sen each to RM8.46 and RM5.95 respectively, Public Bank rose 12 sen to RM17.86, TNB garnered eight sen to RM11.20, and Maxis gained three sen to RM6.58. — Bernama
