Bursa Malaysia Rebounds At Midday Driven By Financial Counter Rally And Budget Optimism

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 – Bursa Malaysia reversed early morning losses to end the Tuesday morning session higher, supported by selective bargain hunting in banking and energy heavyweights following positive sentiment surrounding Budget 2027 measures.

At 12:30 PM on October 13, 2026, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 2.39 points, or 0.14 per cent, to reach 1,620.40 compared to Monday’s closing level of 1,618.01.

After opening 1.39 points weaker at 1,616.62, the key index fluctuated within an intraday range of 1,611.17 and 1,621.32 during morning trade.

Despite the benchmark’s gain, overall market breadth across the exchange remained cautious, with decliners outnumbering gainers 815 to 273, while 378 counters traded unchanged, 1,360 remained untraded, and 21 were suspended. Total morning turnover recorded 1.99 billion units valued at RM1.49 billion.

Heavyweight Movers, Active Counters, and Sectoral Index Performance

Financial and energy stocks led the midday recovery, while technology and consumer counters faced selling pressure:

• Banking Heavyweights Anchor Gains: Financial counters spearheaded the upward move, with Maybank surging nine sen to RM10.04, Public Bank adding three sen to RM4.69, CIMB jumping 14 sen to RM7.44, and IHH Healthcare climbing nine sen to RM7.99. Tenaga Nasional shed four sen to RM13.00.
• Active Market Counters: Top Glove rose 2.5 sen to 84 sen and VS Industry gained half a sen to 33 sen. Conversely, JAKS Resources dropped 1.5 sen to 15.5 sen, Zetrix AI lost half a sen to 7.0 sen, and Dagang Nexchange fell 3.0 sen to 48.5 sen.
• Top Market Gainers: Plantation heavyweight Kuala Lumpur Kepong topped the gainers’ list by surging 20 sen to RM20.76, followed by Hengyuan Refining (up 13 sen to RM3.68), while Bursa Malaysia, RHB Bank, and AMMB Holdings gained 12 sen each to RM8.09, RM7.31, and RM6.27, respectively.
• Top Market Decliners: Technology and consumer stocks led losses, with Malaysian Pacific Industries dropping RM2.04 to RM40.98, Nestle falling RM1.02 to RM90.08, MI Technovation shedding 63 sen to RM6.39, and both Vitrox Corporation and UMS Integration giving up 50 sen to RM10.74 and RM8.40, respectively.
• Broader Index Performance: The FBM Emas Index decreased 26.66 points to 12,079.04, the FBM Top 100 Index dropped 17.46 points to 11,870.39, the FBM Mid 70 Index fell 172.04 points to 17,310.12, the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 96.52 points to 12,034.55, and the FBM ACE Index slipped 109.00 points to 5,451.70.
• Sectoral Indices Performance: The Financial Services Index surged by 172.43 points to 18,766.57, while the Energy Index edged up 0.69 of a point to 834.85. In contrast, the Industrial Products and Services Index contracted 1.62 points to 179.15 and the Plantation Index weakened 16.88 points to 8,795.02.

Market analysts expect trading to remain focused on financial and energy counters through the afternoon session.

–NMT