KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia maintained its upward trend at midday, with continued buying activities in selected heavyweights, mainly in the utilities, industrial products and services sectors.
At 12.30 pm, the FBM KLCI rose 6.94 points or 0.43 per cent to 1,609.02, versus yesterday close of 1,602.08, after opening 1.78 points higher at 1,603.86.
The index moved between 1,603.74 and 1,610.06 during the morning trading session.
The market breadth was positive, with advancers outpacing decliners 455 to 443, while 481 counters were unchanged, 1,122 untraded and 44 suspended.
Tenaga Nasional added 22 sen to RM13.78, Press Metal Aluminium perked up 11 sen to RM5.06, and Sunway gained 13 sen to RM4.73. These stocks pulled the composite index up by a combined 5.10 points.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said with the launch of YTL Power International's artificial intelligence (AI) labs, also known as trading opportunities may continue to emerge across YTL-related counters and AI-related counters like Nationgate Holdings Bhd.
"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.
"Lastly, we like East Malaysia-related counters given the recovery in their share prices and more initial public offerings to be seen in the near term," it added.
Among other heavyweights, MISC expanded 12 sen to RM7.52, YTL Corporation advanced 4.0 sen to RM2.17, Telekom Malaysia jumped 10 sen to RM6.72, while Axiata and SD Guthrie eased 4.0 sen each to RM2.32 and RM4.96, respectively.
Of the active stocks, Top Glove edged up 4.0 sen to RM1.36, Green Ocean inched up half-a-sen to 17.5 sen, JF Technology firmed by 8.0 sen to 78.5 sen, and Tanco was 3.0 sen better at RM1.69 while Datasonic was flat at 43 sen.
On the broader market, the FBM 70 Index jumped 88.77 points to 18,483.82, the FBM Emas Shariah Index strengthened 160;70.56 points to 12,338.20, the FBM Emas Index ticked up 51.53 points to 12,338.08, and the FBMT 100 Index bounced 160;53.57 points to 12,021.61, but the FBM ACE Index weakened by 20.77 points to 5,288.06.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index put on 0.97 of-a-point to 175.66, the Financial Services Index increased 26.97 points to 19,129.09, the Energy Index gave up 5.32 points to 818.83 and the Plantation Index shaved 21.36 points to 7,632.94.