KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of cement makers jumped in late afternoon trade on Thursday as investors chased the stocks on hopes of a revival, ableit scaled-down East Coast Rail Link (ECRL).
At 2.57am, Lafarge Cement was up 44 sen to RM2.44 with 2.34 million shares done.
Tasek gained 35 sen to RM5.05 with 67,900 shares done.
The FBM KLCI rose 1.3 points or 0.08% to 1,688.12. Turnover was 2.04 billion shares valued at RM1.38bil. There were 389 gainers, 393 losers and 375 counters unchanged.
Bursa Securities directed Lafarge to enquire with its directors and major shareholders on the reason for the unusual market activity.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has expressed hope that the decision on the ECRL will be finalised soon after the Chinese government offered some reduction in the cost of the project.
“I think the prime minister (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) had mentioned some price reduction and we are still discussing and hope these discussions can be carried out quickly, hopefully in time for Tun Mahathir's visit to China in April,” he
was quoted saying by Bernama after launching the Industry Digitalisation Transformation Fund here on Thursday.
The ECRL project comes with a hefty price tag of RM55bil and the prime minister previously announced that the project could be carried out at a cost of RM35bil.
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