Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher today (Monday) with continued buying of selected heavyweights keeping the local benchmark index in positive territory.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI rose 4.76 points to 1,544.62 from its close of 1,539.86 last Friday.
The main index opened 2.15 points higher at 1,542.01 and is now moving between 1,540.77 and 1,547.02 during this morning's session.
However, market breadth was slightly negative with losers outnumbering gainers by 451 to 424. Meanwhile, 449 counters were unchanged, 935 were untraded and 12 others were suspended.
The total turnover was 2.28 billion units worth RM1.32 billion.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd Vice President of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said the benchmark index is expected to hover in the range of 1,540 to 1,550.
Meanwhile, the upward trend in the price of crude palm oil was impressive, reaching RM4,100 a tonne. Thus, plantation counters may continue to attract interest.
Among the heavyweight counters, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) rose five sen to RM9.80 per share, Public Bank Bhd rose one sen to RM4.30, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd rose two sen to RM6.67 and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd rose 10 sen. to RM6.91. While Tenaga Nasional Bhd dropped six sen to RM6.67.
For active counters, Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd at 1.5 sen and TWL Holdings Bhd at four sen rose half a sen each, Powerwell Holdings Bhd rose 2.5 sen to 39 sen and Pegasus Heights Bhd was unchanged at half a sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 34.35 points to 11,457.49, the FBMT 100 Index rose 36.30 points to 11,124.35, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 20.77 points to 11,444.75.
The FBM 70 Index gained 58.87 points to 15,462.25, while the FBM ACE Index rose 15.69 points to 4,704.74.
In terms of sectors, the Financial Services Index increased by 37.37 points to 17,406.11, the Plantation Index fell by 5.82 points to 7,310.51, and the Energy Index decreased by 5.09 points to 898.48. The Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.94 points to 175.10.
