BURSA MALAYSIA HIGHER AT MIDDAY FOLLOWING WALL STREET'S BETTER PERFORMANCE

By Anas Abu Hassan

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher, buoyed by Wall Street’s better performance on Friday amid renewed positive sentiment, an analyst said.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 4.39 points to 1,593.98 from Friday’s close of 1,589.59.

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The benchmark index, which opened 2.21 points higher at 1,591.80, moved between 1,591.17 and 1,595.42 during the session.

On the broader market, gainers led decliners 500 to 424, while 459 counters were unchanged, 932 untraded and 16 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 2.51 billion units worth RM1.52 billion.

SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said investor sentiment in Asia is poised to start the week on a positive note, drawing strength from last week's upward trajectory in global stocks.

He said global equities staged a rebound in the latter part of last week, supported by positive earnings reports, particularly from Apple, and the Federal Reserve's less hawkish tone on its rate adjustment.

“This sets the stage for a potentially favourable day for Asian stocks,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM9.82, Public Bank improved five sen to RM4.17, Tenaga Nasional rose eight sen to RM12.40, CIMB was five sen higher at RM6.69, and IHH Healthcare gained two sen to RM6.31.

As for the actives, SNS climbed 8.5 sen to 48 sen, Iconic and Ingenieur inched up half-a-sen each to 11 sen and 12 sen, respectively, Dagang Nexchange gained 1.5 sen to 41.5 sen, and MYEG shed one sen to 91 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 39.38 points to 12,009.49, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 37.39 points to 11,634.51, the FBM 70 Index strengthened 76.17 points to 16,813.19, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 20.35 points to 12,213.65, and the FBM ACE Index notched up 0.48 of-a-point to 5,135.03.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index perked 75.99 points to 17,366.40, the Energy Index slipped 2.33 points to 964.52, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.20 points to 192.04, and the Plantation Index dropped 47.89 points to 7,371.98.

-- BERNAMA