KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 ― Bursa Malaysia rebounded at mid-morning on improving buying demand in selected financial services counters, led by Maybank, CIMB and Hong Leong.

Maybank rose by six sen to RM8.94, CIMB added two sen to RM5.35 and Hong Leong gained eight sen to RM20.24 ― altogether, these counters contributed 1.92 points to the composite index.

At 11.05am, the benchmark index improved 4.41 points to 1,587.63 from 1,583.22 at yesterday’s close.

The barometer index opened 1.95 points higher at 1,585.17.

On the broader market, gainers surpassed losers at 407 to 284, while 379 counters were unchanged, 1,206 untraded and 73 others suspended.

Total turnover stood at 1.08 billion units worth RM570.06 billion.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank was flat at RM4.65, Petronas Chemicals increased four sen to RM9.60, IHH Healthcare was seven sen higher at RM6.23, while both Tenaga and Press Metal were down by three sen to RM9 and RM6.19, respectively.

Of the actives, Metronic added half-a-sen to two sen, Yong Tai rose one sen to 12 sen, while Capital A, Green Packet and Tanco were flat at 75 sen, 11.5 sen and 34.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, FBM 70 ticked up 78.23 points to 13,817.16, FBM Emas Index rose 40.35 points to 11,377.75, FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 41.64 points to 1,1940.92 and FBMT 100 Index advanced 35.96 points to 11,058.46, while FBM ACE was 10.97 points easier at 5,590.50.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index strengthened 71.86 points to 16,766.51 and the Plantation Index added 5.20 points to 7,966.67, while the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.58 of-a-point to 204.58. ― Bernama