Bursa Malaysia traded higher at the midday break, with the FBM KLCI extending gains as banking and heavyweight counters led the advance in a broadly firmer market.
At 12.35pm, the FBM KLCI rose 11.82 points or 0.70% to 1,703.21, moving between an intraday high of 1,707.07 and a low of 1,685.57. Broader indices were mixed, with the FBM70 easing 0.02% to 18,089.45 while the FBM Emas Index added 0.49% to 12,622.50 and the FBM Small Cap Index edged up 0.20% to 12,446.09.
Trading activity remained concentrated in select counters. Tanco was the most actively traded stock with 1.44 billion shares changing hands, closing at 15 sen. Hong Seng was steady at 1.5 sen with high turnover, while Pentech gained 4.5 sen to 30.5 sen and ELSA rose 4 sen to 27 sen. Zetrix slipped 1 sen to 80 sen.
Gainers were led by MPI, which climbed 88 sen to RM49.88, followed by United Plantations rising 54 sen to RM32.04. Hong Leong Bank added 24 sen to RM21.90, while Maybank also gained 24 sen to RM11.16, providing support to the benchmark index. SAM advanced 20 sen to RM5.04.
On the decliners’ side, Press Metal fell 28 sen to RM8.12, while Petronas Gas slipped 20 sen to RM17.26. Bukit Kawasan was down 24 sen to RM20.36, KGB eased 16 sen to RM7.75 and NSOP dropped 18 sen to RM5.24.
