KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia continued to extend gains on news that the US Federal Reserve would not be raising interest rates anytime soon.
A dealer said the positive outcome from the two-day Federal Open Market Committee, which adjourned yesterday, brought cheers to investors and provided strong buying momentum on the local stock market.
“Most Asian bourses also witnessed the same trend after the Fed released its decision,” he added.
At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,807.22, up 9.65 points, after hovering between 1,798.03 and 1,815.71 throughout the morning session.
On the broader market, gainers edged losers 405 to 266 with 322 counters unchanged, 773 counters untraded and 11 others suspended.
On other scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index rose 62.02 points to 12,398,30, the FBMT100 Index advanced 59.16 points to 12,090.79 and the FBM Emas Shariah garnered 58.07 points to 12,974.67.
The FBM 70 improved by 44.15 points to 13,258.81 and the FBM Ace expanded 58.55 points to 6,908.48.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index rose 14.30 points to 3,319.63, the Finance Index jumped 102.55 points to 16,007.74, and the Plantation Index improved 72.41 points to 7,805.25.
Turnover stood at 1.12 billion shares worth RM802.93 million.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank added six sen to RM9.22, Public Bank gained 10 sen to RM18.60, Axiata added one sen to RM7.03, while TNB eased eight sen to RM14.58.
Among actively traded stocks, The Media shoppe and Eti Tech were flat each at 6.5 sen 10 sen respectively, while Xinghe improved by half-a-sen to 13 sen and Wintoni inched up 4.5 sen to 33 sen. – BERNAMA