KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 ― Bursa Malaysia stayed firm at mid-afternoon on persistent buying support in heavyweights led by Top Glove, Tenaga Nasional (TNB) and telecommunication sector stocks.
Top Glove contributed 2.17 point to the barometer index, TNB added 2.15 points, while Axiata and Digi contributed 1.76 and 1.56 points, respectively.
At 3.00pm, the benchmark FBM KLCI rose 9.55 points to 1,621.36 from yesterday’s close of 1,611.81.
The market had opened 4.18 points higher at 1615.99.
However, market breadth was slightly negative with losers leading gainers 566 to 538, while 474 counters were unchanged, 600 untraded and eight others suspended.
Total volume stood at 5.57 billion units worth RM3.6 billion.
Among the heavyweights, Public Bank added three sen to RM4.43 and TNB gained 20 sen to RM10.60, Petronas Chemicals shed 11 sen to RM8.24, IHH Healthcare slid six sen to RM5.23 while Maybank was flat at RM8.50.
Of the actives, Sealink reduced 4.5 sen to 24 sen, Jadi Imaging added 1.5 sen to 14 sen and AirAsia Group gained five sen to RM1.01.
AirAsia X and Dagang Nexchange were flat at 9.5 sen and 72 sen respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 72.54 points to 11,796.31, the FBMT 100 Index expanded 73.99 points to 11,504.54, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 88.88 points to 12,970.30, and the FBM 70 soared 170.08 points to 15,362.57 but the FBM ACE declined 69.35 points to 10,156.68.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index improved 27.54 points to 7,143.33 and the Financial Services Index advanced 44.79 points to 15,734.79 while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.4 of-a-point to 187.0. ― Bernama
