At 12.30pm, all the three plantation-linked counters on the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI), namely KLK, Sime Darby Plantation and IOI Corporation, ended in the black due to the good news for the industry.
KLK, which is also the top gainer on the local bourse, jumped 42 sen to RM25.22, Sime Darby Plantation rose three sen to RM5.48 while IOI Corporation improved two sen to RM4.63.
The positive performance of the plantation-related blue chips, along with the persistent buying interest seen in most of the index-linked counters, sent the benchmark FBM KLCI to end the morning session at 1,595.83, rising 7.07 points from the Dec 31 close of 1,588.98.
After opening at 1,590.98, the key index moved between 1,590.98 and 1,597.34 in the morning session.
Market breadth continued to stay positive as advancers outweighed decliners 492 to 298, while 352 counters remained unchanged, 833 were untraded and 13 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.77 billion shares worth RM851.90 mil.
Bursa Malaysia was closed on Wednesday for New Year celebration.
Among heavyweights, Petronas Chemicals rose 10 sen to RM7.45, IHH gained eight sen to RM5.55, CIMB was five sen better at RM5.20, Petronas Gas improved 24 sen to RM16.86 and Public Bank went up 12 sen to RM19.56.
The actives included Vivocom and its warrant, which rose one sen and half-a-sen to 2.5 sen and one sen respectively, while Bumi Armada perked 1.5 sen to 54.5 sen, TDM bagged half-a-sen to 42.5 sen and Sapura Energy was unchanged at 27 sen.
The FBM Emas Index strengthened 46.71 points to 11,370.20 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 49.34 points higher at 11,997.26.
The FBMT 100 Index rose 45.02 points to 11,159.57, the FBM 70 accumulated 39.26 points to 14,246.07 and the FBM Ace was 153.09 points stronger at 5,379.68.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index ticked up 1.47 points to 154.87, the Financial Services Index garnered 37.28 points to 15,501.45 and the Plantation Index firmed 27.72 points to 7,761.09. – Jan 2, 2020, Bernama
