KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session firmer across the board, buoyed by the strong positive momentum in several indices and the property, as well as small and mid-cap stocks.

The technology and construction indices rose by 3.84 per cent and 3.63 per cent, respectively, while buying interest in the property, small, and mid-cap counters added more than two per cent to the benchmark index.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 17.15 points to 1,481.76 after opening 4.25 points better at 1,468.86.

It moved between 1,467.84 and 1,484.03 throughout the morning trading session.

On the broader market, gainers surpassed losers 827 to 250, while 357 counters were unchanged, 707 untraded and 28 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 3.70 billion shares worth about RM1.81 billion.

An analyst said the market stability was in line with other Asian peers, tracking the uptrend on the overnight US market, amid an ongoing tally of votes for the US presidential election.

Public Investment Bank Bhd, in a note, said no president has been declared yet with the vote count going down to the wire and certain key states as both candidates vie for the 270 electoral college votes needed to cross the proverbial line.

“According to results released by the Associated Press, Democratic Party challenger Joseph R. Biden has 264 to Donald J Trump’s 214 and either which way, the markets are not expected to react too negatively.

“A Trump win will see ‘more of the same’, given the experiences we have had over the past four years, while a Biden win should also result in a relatively sedate market reaction, given the more conciliatory and less caustic tone expected to be struck domestically and globally,” it said.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose four sen to RM7.04, Top Glove bagged three sen to RM8.13, Public Bank increased 14 sen to RM15.00, and Petronas Gas added 20 sen to RM16.00.

Conversely, Hartalega eased four sen to RM17.80.

Fraser and Neave topped the gainers’ list, adding 78 sen to RM31.86, followed by UWC which added 58 sen to RM7.32, Vitrox which rose 56 sen to RM14.56 and KL Kepong which bagged 52 sen to RM22.78.

Of the actives, AT Systematization fell half-a-sen to 11.5 sen, NETX added one sen to 12.5 sen, Konsortium Transnasional increased 3.5 sen to 17.5 sen, and Berjaya Corporation rose 1.5 sen to 20 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 151.56 points to 10,755.56, the FBMT 100 Index was 141.63 points better at 10,550.29 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 205.87 points to 12,937.19.

The FBM 70 went up 266.04 points to 14,189.04 and the FBM ACE was 183.83 points firmer at 10,276.00.

The Financial Services Index rose 109.26 points to 12,091.29, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.75 point better at 145.72 and the Plantation Index gained 129.35 points to 7,036.32. — Bernama