At lunch break, the main index was up 4.85 points to 1,505.73 after opening 11.55 points lower at 1,489.33.
The index was lifted by encouraging performance by blue chips. Maybank went up five sen to RM8.33, Tenaga Nasional rose 20 sen to RM12.50, Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals gained six sen to RM17.58 and RM6.46 respectively, while CIMB Group was 10 sen stronger at RM4.91.
These stocks contributed 4.45 points to the FBM KLCI.
An analyst said this was due to mild bargain hunting by retail investors after the drop on Monday.
“Demand in the local equity market remains upbeat, and despite the current political situation, Malaysia’s market remains resilient backed by our strong economic fundamentals as well as diversified economic portfolio,” he said.
On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 448 to 320, with 358 counters remaining unchanged, 875 not traded and 25 suspended.
Consumer products remained the top losers, with Carlsberg declining RM1.44 to RM35.76 while Heineken dropped 62 sen to RM28.38, Nestle lost 40 sen to RM141.60 and F&N gave up 50 sen to RM31.12.
As for the actives, Advance Synergy rose 2.5 sen to 17.5 sen, Radiant Global gained four sen to 37 sen and Powerwell added 5.5 sen to 43 sen.
On the index board, the performance was mixed, with the FBM Emas Index adding 7.51 points to 10,743.02 while the FBMT 100 Index rose 8.45 points to 10,534.08 and the FBM ACE expanded 17.14 points to 5,712.82.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index recovered 9.23 points to 11,436.43 while the FBM 70 narrowed by 93.55 points to 13,446.52.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index was marginally lower by 0.18 point at 143.28, the Financial Services Index bagged 48.75 points to 14,448.61 and the Plantation Index advanced 15.86 points to 6,955.41. – Feb 26, 2020, Bernama
