KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher, lifted by buying support from lower liners and selected heavyweight counters on improved investor sentiment, dealers said.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 0.49 per cent or 8.09 points to 1,635.53 from yesterday’s close of 1,627.44.
The index opened 6.26 points higher at 1,633.70 and fluctuated between 1,633.70 and 1,640.96 throughout the morning session.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 483 to 304, while 390 counters were unchanged, 739 untraded and 31 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 2.15 billion shares worth RM1.24 billion.
A dealer said the local stock market was influenced by the better performance on Wall Street overnight, backed by the better-than-forecast corporate earnings.
He said bargain-hunting re-emerged in some construction and industrial products and services stocks due a recent profit-taking following an announcement on the revival of infrastructure projects, namely the East Coast Rail Link and Bandar Malaysia.
Among heavyweights, Maybank, Public Bank and Tenaga each rose four sen to RM9.20, RM22.64 and RM12.32, respectively, Petronas Chemicals increased nine sen to RM9.04 and CIMB jumped seven sen to RM5.24.
For the top gainers, Tasek recovered 43 sen to RM6.38, Takaful surged 24 sen to RM5.53 and United Plantation improved 20 sen to RM27.72.
Most active counters, Bumi Armada added one sen to 21 sen, PWorth inched up half-a-sen to 7.5 sen while Impiana eased half-a-sen to five sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 54.35 points higher at 11,639.890, the FBMT 100 Index was 52.63 points better at 11,451.59 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 61.84 points to 11,841.36.
The FBM 70 perked 51.50 points to 14,675.69, and the FBM Ace was firmer by 8.37 points at 4,760.63.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 89.56 points to 16,907.32, the Plantation Index increased 38.49 points to 7,230.63 and the Industrial Products & Services Index was 1.05 points higher at 171.20. — Bernama
