Bursa rallies on improved economic sentiment

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia stayed positive as it headed for the weekend following a positive reaction to better-than-expected Chinese economic data and recent US inflation data that triggered a rally on Wall Street.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 0.2% to 1,452.53. There were 460 gainers compared to 344 decliners.

Trading volume was 1.9 billion shares valued at RM1.05bil.

The uptick in sentiment over the economy sent banks stocks higher including Maybank up four sen to RM8.88, Public Bank gaining one sen to RM4.18, CIMB adding one sen to RM5.70 and Hong Leong Bank falling four sen to RM19.86.

Tenaga Nasional was a leading gainers, rising 15 sen to RM10.12

Telcos took a tumble as CelcomDigi slipped six sen to RM5.53 and Maxis dropped seven sen to RM4.17.

Meanwhile, gainers on the broader market included Hextar Technologies climbing RM1 to RM24.78, Apollo rallying 16 sen to RM5.07 aand Genting Plantation adding 15 sen to RM5.36.

Top actives on the market were Sapura Energy flat at six sen, Alam Maritim up 0.5 sen to 3.5 sen and Netx rising one sen to 11 sen.

In key Asian markets, China's composite index rose 0.3% to 3,135 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.7% to 18,347.

Japan's Nikkei rose 1.2% to 33,575 and South Korea's Kospi gained 1.3% to 2,607.