BURSA MALAYSIA CONTINUES UPTREND AT MIDAFTERNOON, POWERED BY STRONG BUYING IN HEAVYWEIGHT COUNTERS

KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia extended its uptrend at midafternoon trading, buoyed by sustained buying in heavyweight counters led by Maybank, Gamuda, and CIMB Group, as well as broad-based gains across other indices.

Collectively, the three counters contributed 6.50 points to the composite index.

At 3.00 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was up 10.76 points at 1,528.81 from Wednesday’s close of 1,518.05. The benchmark index opened 4.97 points lower at 1,513.08.  

Market breadth was positive, with gainers leading decliners 430 to 389, while 449 counters were unchanged, 1,201 untraded, and 160 suspended.  

Turnover stood at 1.86 billion shares worth RM1.34 billion.  

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added 14.0 sen to RM10.32, Tenaga Nasional climbed 22.0 sen to RM13.54, CIMB Group rose 7.0 sen to RM7.11, and IHH Healthcare advanced 10.0 sen to RM6.91.

Meanwhile, Public Bank was flat at RM4.47.

Among the actives, Gamuda jumped 24.0 sen to RM4.25, Pos Malaysia surged 6.0 sen to 25.5 sen, and Chemlite Innovation added 1.0 sen to 24 sen.

MY EG Services slid half-a-sen to 92 sen, and Bina Puri Holdings was flat at 33 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased by 69.41 points to 11,446.73, FBMT 100 Index expanded by 76.52 points to 11,210.96, FBM Emas Shariah Index went up by 73.94 points to 11,197.78, and the FBM 70 Index gained 102.60 points to 16,421.09,

Meanwhile, the FBM ACE Index contracted by 1.56 points to 4,730.27.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index increased 130.30 points to 18,612.32, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.02 points to 154.08, and the Energy Index added 0.90 of-a-point to 753.64.

The Plantation Index declined 11.22 points to 7,443.03.

-- BERNAMA