KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 — Bursa Malaysia continued to climb higher at mid-day as sentiment remained positive following the uptrend seen in regional bourses.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 8.32 points to 1,700.39 from Friday's close of 1,692.07.
The key index moved between 1,692.85 and 1,700.52 in the morning session, after opening 1.69 points higher at 1,693.76.
Market breadth was positive with 390 losers to 222 gainers, while 307 counters were unchanged, 954 untraded and 44 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 795.30 million shares worth RM449.29 million.
A dealer said towards the end of the year, the market would traditionally be supported by window-dressing activities to lift the local exchange.
“Also, as oil is trading slightly higher, the oil and gas-related counters received more buying power including Petronas Gas, which rose 26 sen to RM19.26 and Dialog Group, which was up by three sen to RM3.11.
“Besides this sector, the finance-related counters also received positive buying momentum,” he said, adding that Hong Leong Bank, for example, jumped 14 sen to RM20.66 while Maybank added three sen to RM9.46.
The dealer added that the barometer index was likely to touch the 1,780-level, as predicted by most of the analysts and economists.
Among heavyweights, Public Bank was flat at RM24.88, Tenaga rose 28 sen to RM13.84, but CIMB and Maxis both slipped two sen and four sen to RM5.76 and RM5.42, respectively.
Of actives, Hubline and KNM Group were flat at 4.5 sen and eight sen, respectively, Sapura Energy added one sen to 29.5 sen while Destini shed half-a-sen to 22 sen.
The FBM Emas Index rose 65.44 points to 11,602.74, the FBMT 100 Index gained 63.01 points to 11,517.59 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 87.06 points to 11,596.48.
The FBM Ace Index was 42.32 points higher at 4,302.52 and the FBM 70 increased 99.98 points to 13,191.50.
Sectorwise, the Finance Index advanced 35.25 points to 17,376.94, the Industrial Products and Services Index was flat at 166.81, and the Plantation Index was 42.39 points stronger at 6,940.13. — Bernama
