KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 — Bursa Malaysia extended its earlier gains at mid-morning, in tandem with the uptrend in the performance of regional peers, thanks to buying support in index-linked counters led by Petronas Chemicals.
At 11.03 am, key index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 9.32 points to 1,365.35 from 1,356.03 at Monday’s close.
Petronas Chemicals lifted the composite index by a substantial 3.64 points after rising 25 sen to RM5.07 with 1.56 million shares changing hands.
Regionally, the Singapore Straits Times bolstered 2.37 per cent to 2,628.21, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index increased 8 per cent to 24,495.27 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 soared 1.88 per cent to 19,402.32.
A dealer said sentiment in the regional market recovered slightly following news report that China has registered a better-than-expected March trade data with imports showed growth rather than contraction while exports declined at a slower-than-expected pace.
Imports by the world’s second-largest economy reportedly increased by 2.4 per cent in March while exports fell 3.5 per cent, sharply lower than market anticipation of 12.8 per cent, he said.
Market breadth on Bursa remained positive with gainers leading losers 495 to 158, while 259 counters were unchanged, 993 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.71 billion shares worth RM60.06 million.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank gained two sen to RM7.47, Tenaga chalked up 12 sen to RM12.16, CIMB bagged four sen to RM3.54, while Public Bank was flat at RM15.84.
IHH Healthcare eased three sen to RM15.84 and Maxis trimmed two sen to RM5.27.
Among the actives today, Lambo and Vortex inched up half-a-sen each to 1.5 sen and nine sen respectively, Minetech was 1.5 sen better at 24.5 sen, while Mlabs added one sen to 2.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 82.81 points to 9,440.85, the FBM Emas Shariah Index went up 101.45 points to 10,433.04, the FBMT 100 Index chalked up 78.35 points to 9,336.7, the FBM Ace soared 169.17 points to 4,180.18 and the FBM 70 rose 153.65 points to 11,048.28.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index bagged 2.71 points to 111.58, while the Financial Services Index increased 57.53 points to 12,285.71 and the Plantation Index earned 10.34 points to 6,215.14.
— Bernama
