KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session on a positive note, tracking the rise in the global stock markets.
Besides that, investors are slowly gaining confidence on renewed hopes for a US stimulus deal, coupled with the progress on Covid-19 vaccinations.
Most major Asian markets climbed with technology shares, among others, were outperforming.
Iris Corp, Trive Property, EA Holdings and Solution Group were among the among the actively trading stocks.
At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 12.29 points or 0.78 per cent to 1,578.69 after moving between 1,574.89 and 1,585.18 throughout the session.
The index opened 8.63 points higher at 1,575.03 compared with Friday’s close of 1,566.40.
On the broader market, however, losers powered gainers 539 to 528, while 423 counters were unchanged, 630 untraded and 12 others suspended.
Volume stood at 3.97 billion units worth RM2.63 billion.
A dealer opined that signs of progress towards a fresh US stimulus deal announced by President Joe Biden and expanding vaccination programmes have boosted sentiment.
Biden and a group of Republican senators are said to continue negotiating a large pandemic relief bill, even if he has to bypass Senate Republicans.
He had a meeting on the stimulus options on Monday.
Back home, Rakuten Trade expects to see some rebound today after a frenzy session last Friday as the index ended at 1,566 after having nearly touched the 1,600 mark during early session.
“We would expect investors to bargain hunt on a broader basis today,” it said.
Meanwhile, the crude palm oil remains rather solid with prices rebounded to almost the RM4,000 per tonne again.
Plantation-linked counters like KLK, IOI and Sime Darby Plantation saw their shares up by 46 sen, three sen and five sen to RM23.70, RM4.25 and RM4.90, respectively.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose 10 sen to RM7.91, Top Glove jumped 18 sen to RM6.92, Tenaga added three sen to RM9.68, while Public Bank was seven sen lower at RM4.12.
Of the actives, Iris Corp fell 3.5 sen to 40 sen, GPA down 2.5 sen to 8.5 sen, while Trive rose seven sen to 23 sen, and P.A. Resources was 1.5 sen higher at 22.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 76.51 points to 11,440.32, the FBMT 100 Index increased 77.63 points to 11,182.56, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 116.37 points to 12,987.23, and the FBM 70 advanced 66.42 points to 14,813.76.
The FBM ACE however gave up 203.33 points to 10,829.61.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index improved 61.19 points to 14,525.25, the Plantation Index surged 53.52 points to 7,151.41, and the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 1.85 points to 171.04. — Bernama
