Bursa Malaysia ends morning session higher

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Bursa Malaysia’s key index maintained its positive note at midday as buying interest continued to spread to key sectors with interest in banking and technology stocks.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was firmer at 16.69 points to 1,464.0 compared to Friday’s close of 1,447.31.

The key index opened 3.63 points higher at 1,450.94 and moved between 1,450.94 and 1,464.41 throughout the session.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced decliners 459 to 274, while 374 counters were unchanged, 1,255 untraded and 66 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.79 billion units valued at RM880.46 million.

In a note, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said that reflecting the buoyant US market, it reckoned regional markets to climb higher today and expects the local bourse to do the same.

“Therefore, we anticipate the index to trend within the 1,450-1,470 range for the rest of the day with interest on the banks and technology sectors,” the firm said.

On the flip side, it said plantation stocks may see some profit-taking as crude palm oil dipped to below RM4,000 per tonne.

Heavyweights Maybank rose 2.0 sen to RM8.60, both Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional were higher at 9.0 sen each to RM4.47 and RM8.44 respectively, while CIMB and IHH Healthcare added 3.0 sen each to RM5.59 and RM5.98 respectively.

Among the actives, Top Glove gained 2.0 sen to 81 sen, Careplus increased 3.0 sen to 50 sen, while CSH Alliance, MMAG and Serba Dinamik were all flat at 3.5 sen, 2.5 sen and 1.0 sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 102.25 points to 10,377.65, the FBM 70 garnered 65.02 points to 12,301.59 and the FBMT 100 Index bagged 100.94 points to 10,115.79.  

The FBM Emas Shariah Index expanded by 116.89 points to 10,439.40 and the FBM ACE grew by 31.83 points to 4,913.13.  

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index climbed 117.66 points to 16,503.70, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.93 of-a-point to 176.38 and the Energy Index was up by 5.68 points to 703.25, and the Plantation Index edged up 89.52 points to 6,932.57.

NMT as reported by Bernama