KL shares end morning session higher

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia finished the morning session higher today, led by gains in key heavyweight counters spurred
by
bullish sentiment after the ruling party retained power post-general
election and positive sentiment on Wall Street, dealers said.

The
benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,747.79 at
lunch break, up 53.02 points from Friday's close, after opening 76.85
points higher at 1,771.62.

The market barometer hovered between 1,743.14 and 1,826.22 during the session and hit an all-time high of 1,826.22 at 9.04am.

Hong
Leong Investment Bank in a research note today said as the ruling party
retained federal power, the certainty and continuation of government
and policies would be well received by investors.






"With major event risk out of the way, we believe market forces will
come back into play and the FBM KLCI will start to play catch-up
against its Asean peers," it said.

British American Tobacco top
the gainers list, adding RM1.52 to RM63.88, followed by Aeon Credit,
gaining RM1.04 to RM15.26 while CIMB stood at the third place, earning
76 sen to RM8.37.

Meanwhile, Wall Street posted a strong
performance in the overnight trade, up between one and 1.1 per cent amid
positive expectations on the overall economic outlook.

"A
five-year low in jobless claims and a strong April jobs report,
off-setting weaker Institute for Supply Management services index and
sluggish factory orders (in the US)," Hong Leong Investment said.

On
the scoreboard, the Finance Index surged 583.029 points to 16,434.52,
the Industrial Index jumped 63.37 points to 2,899.39 and the Plantation
Index rose 131.44 points to 8,095.35.

The FBM Emas Index chalked
up 392.34 points to 11,949.31, the FBMT100 garnered 382.09 points to
11,788.01, the FBM Ace Index gained 132.86 points to 4,034.98 and the
FBM Mid 70 Index added 530.72 points to 13,292.1.

Gainers outnumbered losers by almost ten times, 745 to 75, with 98 counters unchanged, 693 untraded, and 32 others suspended.

Turnover was heavy at 1.14 billion shares worth RM2.87 billion.

Among
actives, Malaysian Airline System earned seven sen to 43 sen, Patimas
Computers climbed two sen to 4.5 sen, Sapura Kencana gained 34 sen to
RM3.30, CIMB added 76 sen to RM8.37 and UEM Land garnered 34 sen to
RM3.39.

For the heavyweights, Maybank added 29 sen to RM9.88,
Axiata earned 24 sen to RM6.84, Sime Darby gained nine sen to RM9.45,
Petronas Chemicals was up six sen to RM6.54 and Tenaga garnered 39 sen
to RM8.17.-- Bernama