KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia gained momentum and rose above the 1,600 level at midday due to continued buying activities in selected heavyweights, especially those in the industrial products and services, financial services and telecommunication and media sectors.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.16 points or 0.14 per cent to 1,605.36, versus yesterday close of 1,603.20, after opening 1.37 points lower at 1,601.83.
The index moved between 1,597.12 and 1,605.95 during the morning trading session.
However, the market breadth was negative, with decliners surpassing advancers 460 to 378, while 513 counters were unchanged, 1,127 untraded and 39 suspended.
Press Metal Aluminium added 6.0 sen to RM4.99, CIMB perked up 4.0 sen to RM8.15, and Telekom Malaysia gained 10 sen to RM6.62. These counters pulled the composite index up by a combined 2.22 points.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said that given the rise in oil prices due to the possibility of new tension between the US and Russia oil trade, there might be a rebound in the oil and gas related counters.
"Meanwhile, traders can focus on the data centre midstream industries under the Technology sector, such as IT solutions, cybersecurity, hard disk drives, electronic manufacturing services (EMS), and outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing, spurred by the ongoing construction of data centre facilities.
"Besides, we like selected Utility, Industrial Products and Consumer stocks within the uptrend phase," it said.
Among other heavyweights, Petronas Dagangan gained 32 sen to RM20.40, Maybank advanced 2.0 sen to RM10.14, Petronas Gas added 6.0 sen to RM17.12, but Petronas Chemicals eased 7.0 sen to RM4.91 and Hong Leong Bank depreciated sen to RM20.40.
Of the active stocks, TMK Chemical edged up 20 sen to RM1.95, Datasonic inched up half-a-sen to 43.5 sen, while TWL Holdings, Zen Tech and Aizo were flat at 3.0 sen, 1.0 sen and 13 sen respectively.
On the broader market, the FBM 70 Index picked up 7.34 points to 18,430.35, the FBM Emas Shariah Index widened 20.28 points to 12,289.52, the FBM ACE Index strengthened by 3.47 points to 5,296.72, the FBM Emas Index improved 11.68 points to 12,309.16, and the FBMT 100 Index gained 12.76 points to 11,992.07.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.12 of-a-point to 174.12, the Energy Index was up by 3.35 points at 160;825.64, but the Financial Services Index lost 14.43 points to 19,138.23, and the Plantation Index shaved 9.53 points to 7,631.66