KUALA LUMPUR (May 4): Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session on a firm note as gains in heavyweights — particularly the healthcare and industrial product and service counters — continued to support the barometer index.
At the lunch break today, the benchmark FBM KLCI had expanded 6.18 points to 1,596.91 after opening 0.94 of a point better at 1,591.67.
It moved between 1,587.87 and 1,597.42 throughout the morning session.
On the overall market, gainers continued to dominate at 523 versus 405 losers, while 463 counters were unchanged, 761 untraded and six others suspended.
Market volume stood at 4.07 billion worth RM2.2 billion.
A dealer said the healthcare counters, especially the rubber glove makers, continued to trend higher as Covid-19 resurgence concerns lingered.
Hartalega Holdings Bhd soared 46 sen to RM10.44, Supermax Corp Bhd perked 13 sen to RM6.01, Top Glove Corp Bhd and Comfort Gloves Bhd bagged two sen each to RM5.50 and RM2.74 respectively, Careplus Group Bhd gained three sen to RM2.93 and Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd rose one sen to RM4.47.
According to the Ministry of Health (MoH), Malaysia’s daily new Covid-19 cases continued to remain in four digits, with 2,500 infections and 18 deaths yesterday, bringing the country’s total number of fatalities to 1,551.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the total number of infections stood at 417,512.
Among the heavyweights today, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) eased one sen to RM8.26, Public Bank Bhd was flat at RM4.13 and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) bagged three sen to RM9.96.
Of the actives, Focus Dynamics Group Bhd increased half a sen to 12 sen, Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) rose five sen to 37 sen and LKL International Bhd added one sen to 39.5 sen.
Top gainers included Transocean Holdings Bhd which improved RM1.19 to RM6.37, Gopeng Bhd which strengthened 29.5 sen to RM1.13 and Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia Bhd which firmed 24 sen to RM31.50.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 42.89 points better at 11,750.37, the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 57.95 points to 13,205.93, the FBMT 100 Index gained 37.22 points to 11,398.06, the FBM 70 improved 23.78 points to 15,435.02 and the FBM ACE bagged 53.29 points to 8,763.90.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index increased 2.04 points to 199.98, the Plantation Index expanded 80.49 points to 6,997.74 and the Financial Services Index gained 11.92 points to 14,859.08.
