Buying interest picks up, Genting, HL Bank among gainers

KUALA LUMPUR: Buying interest picked up after the midday break on Thursday, March 31, supported by gains in Genting, HL Bank and Petronas Dagangan.
At 2.53pm, the FBM KLCI was up 10.10 points to 1,541.73. Turnover was 1.36 billion shares valued at RM1.27 billion. There were 300 gainers, 442 losers and 269 stocks.
The buying was focused on blue chips, especially Genting as fund managers close their books for a volatile first quarter which saw the KLCI surging to a record high in January and then skidding after foreign funds took money out of the market.
External events including the Middle-east crisis, high oil prices and the Japan earthquake had recently caused investors to exit the riskier equities assets.
However, the Economic Transformation Programme and infrastructure projects have been able to buoy investors’ sentiment.
Petronas Dagangan rose 32 sen to RM15.92, HL Bank 25 sen to RM9.80 and Genting 24 sen to RM10.86.
Among the smaller capitalised stocks, Boustead rose 17 sen to RM5.86, HELP 16 sen to RM2.78 while QSR and Tradewinds advanced 13 sen each to RM5.26 and RM8.03.