KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — Bursa Malaysia remained in positive territory at mid-afternoon today driven by positive market sentiment, in spite of the downtrend in regional markets on renewed concerns over the Covid-19 pandemic, dealers said.
At 3pm, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 15.99 points to 1,423.33 from 1,407.34 at Friday’s close.
The overall market breadth on Bursa remained bullish with advancers trumping decliners 647 to 284, while 342 counters were unchanged, 639 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 4.16 billion shares worth RM2.02 billion.
A dealer said that most of the Asian markets were lower following concerns over the surge in the Covid-19 death toll in the United States and President Donald Trump’s tweets, questioning China’s role in the pandemic.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and TNB both advanced four sen each to RM7.74 and RM12.74, respectively, Public Bank rose 12 sen to RM16.16, IHH Healthcare went up 11 sen to RM5.33 while Petronas Chemicals bagged 14 sen to RM5.79.
Among the actives, AirAsia X improved 4.5 sen to 12.5 sen, AirAsia Group added 9.5 sen to 88 sen, while Vortex Consolidated eased half-a-sen to eight sen and Minetech was flat at 28 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 124.81 points stronger at 9,899.75, the FBM ACE added 75.22 points to 4,578.10, the FBM Emas Shariah Index chalked up 81.49 points to 10,919.01, the FBMT 100 Index increased 120 points to 9,776.75 and the FBM 70 soared 186.24 points to 11,749.82.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 2.80 points to 121.82, the Financial Services Index surged 83 points to 12,829.95 and the Plantation Index advanced 38.02 points to 6,374.13. — Bernama
