KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia remained in positive territory at mid-afternoon as investors are slowly gaining confidence due to signs of an abating Covid-19 pandemic around the globe.
Persistent buying in heavyweight counters, led by Maybank, Axiata and Maxis, also boosted the local bourse, with all three counters contributing 11.30 points to the composite index.
At 3.04 pm, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 21.30 points, or 1.58%, to 1,362.99 from 1,341.69 at Monday’s close.
The key index opened 13.82 points firmer at 1,355.51.
On the scoreboard, gainers led losers 755 to 165, while 292 counters were unchanged, 709 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 4.62 billion shares worth RM2.03 bil.
A dealer said the US stock markets rallied on hopes that the coronavirus outbreak is slowing down, signalling an economic recovery.
The Dow Jones Index rose 7.73% to 22,679.99, Nasdaq gained 7.33% to 7,913.24 and S&P added 7.03% to 2,663.68.
On the regional front, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.41% to 24,083.67, Japanese Nikkei improved 2.01% to 18,950.18 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index was 3.16% higher at 2,548.94.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank increased 25 sen to RM7.90, Tenaga added four sen to RM12.14, Public Bank was flat at RM15.90 while IHH was seven sen higher at RM5.10.
Among the active stocks, Lambo inched up half-a-sen to 1.5 sen, Sapura Energy gained one sen to 11.5 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum was 2.5 sen better at 53.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index advanced 164.29 points to 9,439.48, the FBM Emas Shariah Index went up 191.64 points to 10,333.69 and the FBMT 100 Index was 154.33 points higher at 9,331.51.
The FBM 70 jumped 218.82 points to 11,087.58 and the FBM Ace increased 204.53 points to 4,174.66.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 2.14 points to 108.08, the Financial Services Index soared 224.32 points to 12,468.62 while the Plantation Index was 64.92 points stronger at 6,197.57. – April 7, 2020, Bernama
