Stocks end midday firmer boosted by better sentiments

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trade higher on Tuesday led by marginal gains in key index-linked counters as sentiment was lifted by overnight gains on Wall Street, a dealer said.

At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) rose 7.16 points to 1178.47. It had opened 3.41 points higher at 1174.72. Both US indices meanwhile, closed higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Index and Standard & Poor's 500 Index increasing 1.25 percent and 1.53 percent to close at 9,286.56 and 1,002.63 respectively.

"Better-than-expected earnings and lack of negative headlines, fuelled strong gains on Wall Street, supported by broad-based buying and short covering," said MIMB Investment Bank in its research note.

The Finance Index went up 70.28 points to 9,620.98, the Plantation Index increased 52.47 points to 5,663.81 and the Industrial Index rose 13.89 points to 2,600.01 while the FBMEmas Index advanced 49.41 points to 7,967.19.The FBM Top 100 added 43.93 points to 7,742.39 and the newly-introduced FTSE Bursa Malaysia ACE Index declined 18.49 points to 4,248.47.Advancers led decliners by 396 to 192 while 205 counters were unchanged and 435 others untraded.

Leading the actives, KNM Group was unchanged at 87.5 sen, Ramunia edged up half a sen to 61 sen and Kinsteel added five sen to RM1.05 and Lion Corp was flat at 48.5 sen.Among heavyweights, Sime Darby jumped 10 sen to RM8.33, Maybank jumped seven sen to RM6.75, Tenaga Nasional perked two sen to RM8.15 and IOI Corp climbed five sen to RM4.95.

Nymex crude oil was 44 cents lower at US$71.14 per barrel.
The ringgit was quoted at 3.4945 to the US dollar.