KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher, with the key index rising 0.35 per cent supported by Top Glove and TNB.

At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 5.48 points to 1,578.99 from Wednesday’s close of 1,573.51.

The index opened 6.46 points higher at 1,579.97 and moved between 1,576.33 and 1,586.26 throughout the morning session.

On the broader market, gainers led losers by 615 versus 389, while 399 counters were unchanged, 721 untraded and nine others suspended.

Total volume stood at 4.84 billion shares worth RM2.04 billion.

Top Glove jumped 10 sen to RM4.62 and TNB rose 12 sen to RM10.24. Both stocks accounted for 2.82 points to the key index’s gains.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the FBM KLCI was steeply oversold yesterday and bargain hunting might emerge over the near term, tracking Wall Street’s overnight gains on technology stocks.

“We believe the broader market may recover, but we expect the rebound to be short-lived and traders may adopt selling into strength strategy. Meanwhile, the crude palm oil price rose on solid exports data for March 2021,” it said in a research note today.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank added three sen to RM4.23, Petronas Chemicals gained five sen to RM8.05, and TNB and Press Metal jumped 12 sen each to RM10.24 and RM10.02, respectively.

However, Maybank, IHH Healthcare and CIMB all fell one sen to RM8.24, RM5.31 and RM4.33, respectively.

As for the active counters, Dagang Nexchange rose 2.5 sen to 93.5 sen, JKG Land and Yong Tai were three sen higher at 13.5 sen and 29.5 sen respectively, MCT strengthened five sen to 34.5 sen, MK Land advanced 5.5 sen to 27.5 sen, Fintec was flat at six sen and Berjaya Corp shed 2.5 sen to 43 sen.

On the index board, the FBM 70 expanded 45.65 points to 15,519.22, the FBM Emas Index grew 42.60 points to 11,657.16, the FBMT 100 was 37.73 points higher at 11,319.5, the FBM Emas Shariah put on 56.40 points to 12,904.57 and the FBM ACE trimmed 8.97 points to 10,056.83.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index went up 5.39 points to 15,226.38, the Plantation Index increased 12.03 points to 7,023.54, and the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 1.14 points to 192.28. — Bernama