KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Bursa Malaysia continued its upward momentum at mid-afternoon today on bargain hunting activities as well as global economic optimism over massive initiatives to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key index, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 3.37 per cent or 42.47 points higher to 1,302.35 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,259.88.
The market traded in a tight range of 1,271.34 to 1,296.17 throughout the morning session.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 644 to 179, while 217 counters were unchanged, 978 untraded and 18 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.99 billion shares worth RM1.18 million.
An analyst said investors are bargain hunting for small and medium-sized cap stocks as well as selected blue-chip stocks which had reached a low level due to heavy sell-offs recently.
Among the heavyweights, banking counters led the gainers with Public Bank gained RM1.32 to RM15.22, Hong Leong rose RM1.50 to RM14.10, Maybank was up 20 sen to RM7.32, CIMB garnered 16 sen to RM3.45 and RHB was 22 sen higher to RM4.98.
Altogether, these counters contributed positively to the CI index, which rose by 24.32 points.
Of the actives, oil and gas-related counters continued its rally lead since morning with Hibiscus added three sen to 31.5 sen and Sapura Energy gained one sen to eight sen.
Technology counters have also seen an increase in interest with Vortex and Sanichi both listed as actively traded.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index surged 302.38 points to 8,804.03, the FBM 70 gained 398.10 points to 9,751.01 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index garnered 232.43 points to 9,560.67.
The FBMT 100 Index increased by 300.62 points to 8,758.73 and the FBM Ace rose 144.02 points to 3,495.96.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 2.36 points to 97.49, the Plantation Index upticked 48.70 points to 5,779.40 and the Financial Services Index was 626.20 points better at 11,987.79.
