Healthcare, industrial products and services continue to support FBM KLCI

At lunch break, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) expanded 6.18 points to 1,596.91 after opening 0.94 of-a-point better at 1,591.67.

It moved between 1,587.87 and 1,597.42 throughout the session.

On the overall market, gainers continued to dominate at 523 versus 405 losers, while 463 counters were unchanged, 761 untraded and six others suspended.

Market volume stood at 4.07 billion worth RM2.20 billion.

A dealer said the healthcare counters, especially the rubber glove makers, continued to trend higher as COVID-19 resurgence concerns linger.

Hartalega soared 46 sen to RM10.44, Supermax perked 13 sen to RM6.01, Top Glove and Comfort Gloves bagged two sen each to RM5.50 and RM2.74, respectively, Careplus gained three sen to RM2.93 and Kossan Rubber rose one sen to RM4.47.

According to the Health Ministry, Malaysia's daily COVID-19 cases continued to remain at four-digits, with 2,500 new cases and 18 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,551.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the total number of infections now stands at 417,512.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank eased one sen to RM8.26, Public Bank was flat at RM4.13 and TNB bagged three sen to RM9.96.

Of the actives, Focus Dynamics increased half-a-sen to 12 sen, BJCorp rose five sen to 37 sen and LKL added one sen to 39.5 sen.

Top gainers were Transocean which improved RM1.19 to RM6.37, Gopeng which strengthened 29.5 sen to RM1.13 and Panasonic which firmed 24 sen to RM31.50.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 42.89 points better at 11,750.37, the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 57.95 points to 13,205.93, the FBMT 100 Index gained 37.22 points to 11,398.06, the FBM 70 improved 23.78 points to 15,435.02, and the FBM ACE bagged 53.29 points to 8,763.90.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index increased 2.04 points to 199.98, the Plantation Index expanded 80.49 points to 6,997.74 and the Financial Services Index gained 11.92 points to 14,859.08.