KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session stronger, soaring above the 1,600 benchmark, lifted by Petronas and financial heavyweights.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,612.35 points after moving between 1,596.42 and 1,612.60 throughout the trading session this morning.
On the broader market, gainers trumped losers 421 to 299, while 385 counters remained unchanged, 831 untraded and 13 others suspended.
An analyst said that the local bourse was boosted by Petronas-related counters as well as banking stocks.
She said Petronas shares rose following the Court of Appeal’s move to dismiss the Sarawak state government and Comptroller of State Sales Tax’s appeal against an earlier decision by the High Court granting the oil and gas company leave to apply for a judicial review to quash the Notices of Assessment for about RM1.3 billion in State Sales Tax (SST).
“As for the financial counters, investors are bargain hunting after the index fell due to the rising tension in the Middle East,” she said.
At noon, Petronas Chemical was up six sen to RM7.51 and Petronas Gas rose eight sen to RM16.96, while Maybank increased four sen to RM8.69, Hong Leong Bank upticked 12 sen to RM17.72 and CIMB added seven sen to RM5.29.
For top gainers, Nestle surged RM1.00 to RM147.50, PPB was up 60 sen to RM19.38, while Public Bank added 22 sen to RM20.12 and RHB Bank edged up 14 sen to RM5.88.
As for the actives, Vortex Consolidated was half-a-sen higher at 24.5 sen, Rimbunan Sawit rose four sen to 42 sen and TDM was two sen firmer at 40 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was up 77.06 points to 11,464.26 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 89.85 points higher at 12,086.35.
The FBMT 100 Index strengthened 77.15 points to 11,257.79, the FBM 70 contracted 3.45 points to 14,300.62 while the FBM Ace accumulated 104.75 points to 5,529.58.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.91 of-a-point to 156.14, the Financial Services Index improved 108.69 points to 15,736.07 and the Plantation Index strengthened 49.02 points to 7,768.01. ― Bernama
