KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of Axiata and AMMB were in focus in the morning session on July 16 after analysts upgraded the stocks while the FBM KLCI extended its winning streak.

The market also saw heavy trading interest in lower liners and penny stocks, pushing the total turnover in the morning session to above one billion units.

At 12.30pm, the 30-stocks FBM KLCI rose 19.32 points to 1,116.56. Turnover was 1.07 billion shares valued at RM1.21 billion. Advancing counters beat decliners three to one, with 457 gainers, 154 losers and 209 stocks unchanged.

Among key Asian markets, Singapore’s Straits Times added 0.8% to 2,407.49, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.29% to 9,389.08, Shanghai’s Composite Index 0.71% higher at 3,211.29 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.62% to 18,553.57.

Light crude oil rose three cents to US$61.57 while crude palm oil futures eased RM2 to RM2,083.

At Bursa, Axiata surged 21 sen to RM2.91 with 29.17 million shares done after  CIMB Equities Research had an Outperform call on the company. It raised Axiata’s FY09-11 core net profit estimates by 3%-7% and SOP-based target price from RM2.75 to RM3.30.

AMMB jumped 20 sen to RM3.88 with 10.5 million shares done. Public Bank foreign added 25 sen to RM10.20, Maybank and BCHB also advanced 20 sen each to RM6.10 and RM9.90.

MPI rose 35 sen to RM5.50 as investors sentiment in the semiconductor industry improved following Intel’s better-than-expected 2Q results.

Merge added 18 sen to 38 sen after the company was uplifted from the Practice Note 17. The best performer was PPB, rising 50 sen to RM12.50.

KNM was the most active with 93.9 million shares done, adding four sen to 87.5 sen.

OSK Properties-WB fell 20 sen to 15 sen, Malaysian Mosiacs skidded 17 sen to 75 sen but with only 700 shares done. Profit taking on Hartalega and Top Glove saw the former losing 12 sen to RM4.56 and the latter eased 10 sen to RM7.25.