KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): Bursa Malaysia remained in positive territory at mid-afternoon today on improved buying sentiment across-the-board as fears of a trade war between the United States and China started to ease.

At 3.20 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 20.25 points to 1,836.19 from Wednesday’s 1,815.94, after opening 8.52 points better at 1,824.46 this morning.

Gainers led losers by 622 to 332, 349 counters unchanged, 568 untraded and 33 others suspended.

Volume stood at 1.52 billion units valued at RM1.18 billion.

A dealer said optimism in the local market today was in line with regional stocks, which bounced from a two-month low, as US-China trade war fears began to ease after the former expressed a willingness to talk. 

"Furthermore, some traders took the opportunity to accumulate quality stocks at a cheaper price, following yesterday's heavy selling,” he said.

Among heavyweights, Maybank rose 14 sen to RM10.48, Public Bank gained six sen to RM23.96 and Tenaga was 12 sen higher at RM15.82.

Of the actives, Sapura Energy was two sen better at 53 sen and PUC increased 1.5 sen to 25.5 sen. SKH was flat at 7.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index was up 164.1 points to 12,776.47, FBMT 100 Index was 157.82 points higher at 12,617.4 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 153.2 points to 12,887.12.

The FBM 70 gained 253.81 points to 15,171.04 and the FBM Ace garnered 112.14 points to 4,995.97.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index recovered 285.16 points to 17,996.47, Plantation Index was up 32.78 points to 7,934.14 and the Industrial Index rose 2.37 points to 3,193.69.