KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — Bursa Malaysia extended earlier gains at mid-morning, bolstered by buying in small capitalisation stocks amid positive market sentiment.
At 11.02am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 9.07 points firmer at 1,712.64 from yesterday’s close of 1,703.61 and after opening 7.1 points higher at 1,710.67.
Market breadth was positive with advancers leading decliners 444 to 260, while 315 counters were unchanged, 890 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Volume stood at 1.45 million units valued at RM853.35 million.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Small Cap Index chalked up 134.66 points to 13,593.98.
A dealer said Asian equities staged uptrend performances as investors took the cue from a positive finish on Wall Street overnight after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the country and China could reopen trade talks.
This spurred optimism in the market, especially among the emerging bourses, he said.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank gained two sen to RM9.52 and RM23.02 respectively, Tenaga bagged six sen to RM14.54, Petronas Chemicals earned 10 sen to RM8.63, and CIMB added five sen to RM5.68.
Among actives, MRCB shed four sen to 70 sen, MyEG rose four sen to 90 sen, George Kent improved 12 sen to RM1.41, and Sino Hua-An added two sen to 30 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 64.99 points higher at 12,079.88, the FBMT100 Index advanced 62.78 points to 11,882.11, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 79.07 points to 12,174.41 and the FBM Ace Index added 6.95 points to 5,324.69, while the FBM70 garnered 77.02 points to 14,696.46.
Sectorwise, the Industrial Index bagged 9.21 points to 3,158.92, the Plantation Index perked 1.8 points to 7,491.56, and the Finance Index edged up 52.34 points to 16,964.3. — Bernama
