KUALA LUMPUR (March 11): Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher on Monday, with persistent buying of selected heavyweights keeping the local benchmark index in positive territory, dealers said.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI had risen 4.76 points to 1,544.62, from last Friday's close at 1,539.86.

The key index, which opened 2.15 points higher at 1,542.01, moved between 1,540.77 and 1,547.02 during the morning session. 

However, market breadth was slightly negative, with decliners edging past gainers 451 to 424, while 449 counters were unchanged, 935 untraded, and 12 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 2.28 billion units worth RM1.32 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said that for Monday, the benchmark index is expected to hover within the 1,540-1,550 range.

“Meanwhile, the uptrend in crude palm oil prices has been impressive, touching RM4,100 per tonne. Thus, plantation counters may continue to attract interest,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweight counters, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) gained five sen to RM9.80 a share, Public Bank Bhd edged up one sen to RM4.30, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd added two sen to RM6.67, and Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd rose 10 sen to RM6.91, while Tenaga Nasional Bhd slipped six sen to RM6.67.

As for the active counters, Hong Seng Consolidated Bhd at 1.5 sen and TWL Holdings Bhd at four sen had advanced half a sen each, Powerwell Holdings Bhd improved 2.5 sen to 39 sen, and Pegasus Heights Bhd was flat at half a sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 34.35 points firmer at 11,457.49, the FBMT 100 Index rose 36.30 points to 11,124.35, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 20.77 points to 11,444.75.

The FBM 70 Index bagged 58.87 points to 15,462.25, while the FBM ACE Index climbed 15.69 points to 4,704.74.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 37.37 points to 17,406.11, the Plantation Index fell 5.82 points to 7,310.51, and the Energy Index shed 5.09 points to 898.48. The Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.94 of a point to 175.10.