KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia remained in positive territory at mid-afternoon today, fueled by the oil and gas (O&G)-linked counters amid the rising crude oil prices.
At 3.05 pm, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 7.45 points, or 0.56%, to 1,330.11 from 1,322.66 at Wednesday’s close.
The key index opened 2.04 points lower at 1,320.62 at 9am.
Market breadth stayed positive, with gainers outpacing losers 490 to 247, while 308 counters were unchanged, 876 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 2.71 billion shares worth RM1.32 bil.
A dealer said market sentiment was lifted after the benchmark Brent crude oil surged over 10% to more than US$27 per barrel today.
“Global crude oil prices surged following news of US President Donald Trump expressing optimism that the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia could be resolved soon,” he said.
Trump was quoted as saying that he expected Saudi Arabia and Russia to “work it (the dispute) out over the next few days” after he spoke to both countries’ leaders.
Among the FBM KLCI’s 30 counters, Petronas Gas, which is also the top gainer on the local bourse, increased 42 sen to RM15.38, Press Metal Aluminium gained 13 sen to RM3.19, while Maxis, Sime Darby Plantation and IOI Corp added seven sen each to RM5.15, RM4.81 and RM3.96, respectively.
Besides Petronas Gas, energy-linked stocks that made it to the top gainers list included Petron Malaysia, which strengthened 24 sen to RM3.30, Petronas Dagangan (up 22 sen to RM20.60), Hengyuan (19 sen higher at RM2.65) and Dayang (13 sen firmer at RM1.28).
Most actives were dominated by O&G-related counters. Armada added two sen to 15.5 sen, Sapura Energy ticked up half-a-sen to eight sen, Hibiscus were 65 sen better at 40 sen, Perdana firmed up 2.5 sen to 16 sen and KNM bagged 1.5 sen to 13 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index jumped 73.09 points to 9,159.27, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 96.12 points firmer at 10,019.51, while the FBMT 100 Index climbed 65.18 points to 9.074.05.
The FBM 70 improved 136.14 points to 10,647.35 and the FBM Ace added 25.86 points to 3,919.04. – April 2, 2020, Bernama
