KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 ― Bursa Malaysia turned bullish and ended the morning session higher, boosted by buying in the trade and services index-linked counters.
At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) settled 3.53 points better at 1,872.0 from Friday's close of 1,868.47, after moving between 1,867.21 and 1,873.30 throughout the session.
The index opened 0.22 of-a-point at 1,868.69.
On the broader market, losers led gainers 460 to 326, with 316 counters unchanged, 793 untraded and 21 suspended.
Volume stood at 1.59 billion units valued at RM811.51 million.
A dealer said that the local market recovered after last week's overreaction sell-down, responding to the geopolitical tensions in Syria.
Regionally, Japan’s Nikkei increased 0.23 per cent to 21,828.02, but Singapore’s Straits Times Index down 0.34 per cent to 3,489.52 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.08 per cent to 30,808.38.
Among trade and services key index counters, GenM added 14 sen to RM5.22, TM bagged 15 sen to RM5.57, PetDag rose 54 sen to RM26.02, and TNB advanced two sen to RM15.90.
Of the actives, SapNRG gained three sen to 77 sen, UMWOG rose 1.5 sen to 31.5 sen, Sumatec declined half-a-sen to seven sen and SKH down one sen to 8.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 10.87 points higher at 13,140.39 and the FBMT 100 Index gained 12.13 points to 12,933.75 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 13.29 points to 13,365.99.
On the other hand, the FBM 70 down 26.94 points to 15,792.64 and the FBM Ace erased 48.84 points to 5,597.29.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index lost 9.98 points to 18,251.86, the Plantation Index eased 5.35 points to 8,049.18 and the Industrial Index decreased 1.13 points to 3,219.65. ― Bernama
