KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Strong investors’ appetite, solid corporate earnings and better commodity prices continued to drive Bursa Malaysia to end the morning trading session on a high note.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) went up 7.08 points to 1,560.45 from Tuesday’s close of 1,553.37.  

The market bellwether opened 1.21 points higher at 1,554.58 and moved between 1,554.58 and 1,568.67 throughout the session.

Market breadth remained positive with gainers edging past decliners 470 to 462, while 450 counters were unchanged, 869 untraded and nine others suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.85 billion shares worth RM1.50 billion.

Rakuten Trade head of equity sales Vincent Lau told Bernama that foreign funds have been net buyers in the local equity market in the past few days, noting that the foreign net buying was quite large yesterday, leading the market to breach the 1,550 level for the first time in about two months.

Lau said the political stability and an oversold market scene are also contributing to the market’s uptrend.

In a note, Rakuten Trade said the improving market volume and solid corporate earnings would help the index to continue its ascension and expect the index to be in the 1,555-1,565 range today as market valuation remains attractive.

Among the heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional gained 17 sen to RM10.14, Press Metal was eight sen higher at RM5.08, IOI Corp advanced eight sen to RM3.97, while Telekom Malaysia added 10 sen to RM5.98.

Meanwhile, Maybank increased two sen to RM8.34 and Public Bank dropped three sen to RM4.08.

Among the actives, Kanger International and Sapura Energy were unchanged at six sen and 12 sen, respectively, while MMAG decreased half-a-sen to 11 sen, and Serba Dinamik improved two sen to 44 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 40.95 points to 11,406.30, the FBMT 100 Index bagged 40.21 points to 11,111.39, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 76.73 points to 12,498.07, the FBM 70 was 14.44 points higher at 14,945.84, and the FBM ACE lost 4.27 points to 7,323.22.  

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index increased 34.50 points to 6,649.34, the Financial Services Index dipped 8.02 points to 15,328.41, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.16 points to 192.53. — Bernama