KUALA LUMPUR: Construction stocks were in the spotlight in the morning section as counters seen to benefit from the resumption of the Bandar Malaysia project rocketed on the news of its revival.
Ekovest and Iskandar Waterfront City rose to their daily upper limits with Ekovest being the most actively traded counter in the early session, gaining 30 sen to 97 sen, while IWCity climbed 30 sen to RM1.32.
Other construction plays seeing momentum included Tasek surging 54 sen to RM5.69, Econpile gaining 17 sen to 75.5 sen, DWL climbing 48 sen to RM1.69, Lafarge Malaysia rising 38 sen to RM2.71 and Gamuda soaring 26 sen to RM3.34.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI resumed its rebound on Monday with a 5.52-point increase to 1,627.59 at midday.
Trading volume was 2.56 billion shares valued at RM1.71bil. There were 534 advancers versus 259 decliners and 330 counters unchanged.
Banks led the day's advance with Maybank adding seven sen to RM9.16, CIMB climbing 10 sen to RM5.17, Public Bank lifting two sen to RM22.54 and RHB edging one sen higher to RM5.81.
However, Hong Leong Bank stepped back four sen to RM20.04 and Ambank dropped two sen to RM4.45.
Asian markets turned bearish on Monday even as certain key markets remained closed for the Easter weekend holiday. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.4% and the CSI300 Index fell 2% while Japan's Nikkei Index stayed mostly flat.
Oil prices continued to rise however as the US threatened to place sanctions on nations that continued to import crude from Iran.
US crude surged RM1.61 to RM65.61 a barrel and Brent crude jumped RM1.84 to RM73.81 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit was 0.1% lower against the US dollar at 4.1368. It was flat agianst the Singapore dollar at 3.0490 and pound sterling at 5.3751.
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