KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 ― Shares on Bursa Malaysia continued to be on an upward momentum at mid-day today, tracking the positive performance of regional peers.

A dealer said the market sentiment was buoyed by the overnight rally on the Wall Street, particularly the Dow Jones Industrial Index which surged nearly 700 points to end at 22,327.5.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI rose by 8.55 points or 0.64 per cent to 1,337.43 from 1,328.88 at yesterday’s close.

The key index opened 7.72 points stronger at 1,336.60, and hovered between 1,335.91 and 1,352.20 throughout the morning session.

Advertisement

On the broader market, advancers beat decliners 576 to 177, while 264 counters were unchanged, 981 untraded and 96 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.84 billion shares worth RM1.04 billion.

Regionally, Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 2.03 per cent to 2,465.27, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 1.09 per cent to 23,428.15 and South Korea’s Kospi Index was 0.81 per cent higher at 1,730.95.

Advertisement

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said the tug of war between buyers and sellers continued as Wall Street ended the session stronger yesterday.

“Although we foresee regional markets to follow suit backed by some relief buying, volatility remains high,” it said in a note today.

Locally, the online equities broker expected the market to be firmer and anticipated the FBM KLCI to trend within a tight range of between 1,320 and 1,340.

Among heavyweights, IHH rose 12 sen to RM5.27, Maybank and Sime Darby Plantation bagged eight sen each to RM7.39 and RM4.73 respectively, Genting was 23 sen higher at RM3.73 and CIMB garnered eight sen to RM3.59.

Of the actives, Armada ticked up half-a-sen to 13.5 sen, Hibiscus added one sen to 18 sen, while Pegasus Heights, Sanichi and Hubline were flat at half-a-sen, five sen and four sen respectively.

Nestle led the top gainers list, surging RM1.00 to RM137.00, Ajinomoto increased 52 sen to RM13.22, Dutch Lady was 46 sen firmer at RM42.50, F&N rose 44 sen to RM30.96 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong strengthened 40 sen to RM20.94.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index accumulated 72.72 points to 9,157.12, the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 75.81 points to 9,984.77 while the FBMT 100 Index climbed 67.59 points to 9,085.32.

The FBM 70 advanced 118.02 points to 10,499.65 and the FBM Ace was 133.72 points stronger at 3,917.19.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.05 points to 104.88, the Financial Services Index jumped 88.89 points to 12,225.64 and the Plantation Index was 76.19 points better at 6,119.36. ― Bernama