Bursa Malaysia continued its upward trend in the second trading session at midday on the back of continued buying in technology, consumer and utility counters.
At 3.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 14.87 points or 0.90% to 1,667.69 points since opening on Friday.
The index opened 4.93 points higher at 1,658.48 and fluctuated between levels of 1,651.10 to 1,664.80 throughout the morning session.
In the broader market, market sentiment was positive with gainers outnumbering losers by 592 to 436. Meanwhile, 401 counters were unchanged, 1,061 were untraded and 80 others were suspended.
The total turnover amounted to 2 billion units worth RM1.7 billion.
Malacca Securities expects further selling pressure to occur on local technology stocks following Nvidia's decline and a stronger ringgit environment.
However, a stronger ringgit could benefit the consumer sector as evidenced by the improved performance of BTS and Spritzer this quarter.
Among heavyweights, Maybank fell eight sen to RM10.60 and Petronas Chemicals fell two sen to RM5.76.
Public Bank rose two sen to RM4.72, CIMB rose 12 sen to RM8.12 and Tenaga jumped 44 sen to RM14.38. On the other hand, IHH was unchanged at RM6.29.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 55.81 points to 12,356.01, the FBMT 100 Index gained 49.59 points to 12,055.46 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 60.71 points to 12,184.68.
The FBM 70 Index rose 119.21 points to 17,309.08 while the FBM ACE Index rose 25.06 points to 5,106.14.
