KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — Bursa Malaysia were higher at mid-morning with increases seen in most indices after the long weekend.

At 11.07am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.71 points to 1,420.66 from last Friday’s close of 1,415.95 after opening 0.26 of-a-point better at 1,416.21.

The market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers at 326 versus 317, while 340 counters were unchanged, 1,256 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.3 billion units valued at RM497.48 million.

Maybank Investment Bank (IB) said in a research note that the recent strength in the US equity markets is set to boost domestic sentiment although the short trading week could keep interest selective on mid — and small-cap stocks.

"Technically, we expect the FBM KLCI Index to range between 1,410 and 1,430 points today,” it said.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM8.66 and RM5.06 respectively, Public Bank added one sen to RM3.90, Petronas Chemicals gained 11 sen to RM7.19, CelcomDigi eased one sen to RM4.39 and Tenaga Nasional improved two sen to RM8.92.

As for the actives, Hong Seng increased half sen to 13.5 sen, Ta Win Holdings was flat at five sen, Revenue Group eased one sen to 36.5 sen and Star Media Group rose 2.5 sen to 61.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index edged up 28.99 points to 10,425.38, the FBMT 100 Index climbed 28.98 points to 10,109.20 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 34.12 points to 10,770.91.

Meanwhile, the FBM ACE Index was 38.48 points lower at 5,329.90 but the FBM 70 index ticked up 20.18 points to 13,542.76.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index increased 0.27 of a point to 171.72, while the Energy Index went up 0.23 of a point to 847.60, the Financial Services Index rose 40.09 points to 15,559.62 and the Plantation Index was 6.72 points firmer at 6,824.10. — Bernama