KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher, in sync with regional peers and a positive performance on Wall Street overnight.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 1.27 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 1,599.47 from Monday's close of 1,598.20.
The benchmark index, which opened 0.38 of a point firmer at 1,598.58, moved between 1,595.62 and 1,602.52 throughout the morning session.
On the broader market, gainers surpassed decliners 569 to 422 while 470 counters were unchanged, 928 untraded and eight others suspended. Turnover amounted to 3.20 billion units worth RM1.88 billion.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said it believes the buying support on the local bourse should continue within the technology sector, supported by data centre, AI, and cloud services catalysts.
The brokerage said the sudden surge in commodity prices could provide healthy trading activities within the energy and plantation sectors, at least for the near term. "Additionally, we recommend selected sectors like shipping, renewable energy, building materials, packaging, and consumer for short term trading opportunities," it said in a note.
Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank and Public Bank were one sen higher at RM9.98 and RM4.04, respectively, while Tenaga Nasional added eight sen to RM14.08. CIMB gained three sen to RM6.86 and IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.30.
As for the actives, UUE Holdings increased 41.5 sen to 65.5 sen, Hiap Teck added three sen to 47 sen and ATA IMS was two sen firmer at 52.5 sen. SNS Network and MYEG fell half-a-sen each to 83.5 sen and 99 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 28.26 points to 12,310.71, the FBMT 100 Index rose 27.04 points to 11,885.39 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index garnered 29.45 points to 12,654.44.
The FBM 70 Index climbed 105.51 points to 18,039.09, and the FBM ACE Index climbed 18.75 points to 5,877.71.
Sector-wise, the Energy Index gained 7.05 points to 977.70, the Industrial Products and Services Index grew by 0.66 of-a-point to 197.45 and the Financial Services Index bagged 19.18 points to 17,515.70.
However, the Plantation Index weakened 9.72 points to 7,001.64.