KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 ― Bursa Malaysia closed the morning session on a firm note on continued buying support for key heavyweights and ACE stocks which lifted the market higher.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI's (FBM KLCI) was 2.16 points better at 1,674.21 compared with yesterday's close of 1,672.05.
After opening 0.75 of-a-point higher at 1,672.8 today, the local index moved between 1,671.23 and 1,74.82 throughout the morning session.
Gainers outpaced decliners 342 to 301, while 354 counters were unchanged, 728 untraded and 27 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.61 billion shares worth RM831.92 million.
In a note, Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research said focused shifted to ACE stocks as the FBM ACE index trended above 5,000 while the FBM Small Caps Index was taking a pause.
“Hence, profit taking activities are likely to emerge further among small caps stocks after recent gains,” HLIB Research added.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank both added two sen each to RM8.30 and RM20.04, respectively, while TNB rose 12 sen to RM13.92 and Sime Darby gained five sen to RM8.50.
On actives, IFCA MSC was 1.5 sen better at 36.5 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum increased two sen to 50 sen while Sumatec declined half-a-sen to eight sen.
The FBM Emas Index inched up 11.98 points to 11,696.97, the FBMT100 Index was 12.15 points higher at 11,403.61 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 3.94 points better at 12,237.4.
The FBM 70 gained 4.56 points to 13,258.98 and the FBM Ace surged 52.17 points to 5,058.95.
On a sectoral basis, the Industrial Index eased 0.15 of-a-point to 3,180.27, the Finance Index rose 35.47 points to 14,732.14 and the Plantation Index edged up 4.4 points to 7,904.4. ― Bernama
