KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 ― Bursa Malaysia remained higher at mid-morning as bargain hunting re-emerged, particularly in the financial services, utilities and technology sectors.
At 11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) strengthened 9.01 points to 1,539.61 from Wednesday's close of 1,530.60.
The benchmark index opened 1.51 points higher at 1,532.11.
On the broader market, gainers led decliners 439 to 333 while 450 counters were unchanged, 1,098 untraded and 55 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.22 billion units worth RM719.55 million.
Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank and Public Bank gained 4.0 sen each to RM9.69 and RM4.25 respectively, CIMB Group added 14.0 sen to RM6.69, and Tenaga Nasional rose 10.0 sen RM11.34, while Petronas Chemicals slid 9.0 sen to RM6.70.
Among the actives, Hong Seng Consolidated, Lambo Group and Destini Bhd were flat at 1.0 sen, 3.0 sen and 3.5 sen respectively, while MMAG Holdings notched up 1.0 sen to 18.5 sen and Ingenieur Gudang slipped half-a-sen to 15.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index climbed 54.72 points to 11,580.70, the FBMT 100 Index increased 54.57 points to 11,227.11, the FBM Emas Shariah Index ascended 23.41 points to 11,636.85, the FBM ACE Index advanced 53.38 points to 4,896.11, and the FBM 70 Index rose 32.87 points to 16,181.02.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index surged 123.42 points to 17,305.54, and the Energy Index advanced 9.65 points to 952.64.
Meanwhile, the Plantation Index trimmed 0.21 point to 7,298.35, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.27 point to 179.27.
Bursa Malaysia Bhd and its subsidiaries were closed yesterday in conjunction with Nuzul Al-Quran. ― Bernama
