KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 5): In a rare scene, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd (MPI) and Genetec Technology Bhd’s share prices both rose to RM50 for the first time on Friday (Nov 5) to help Bursa Malaysia’s Technology Index become the largest percentage gainer among the bourse gauges after the US’ technology-laden Nasdaq closed at its record high in overnight trade.

At Bursa’s 12.30pm break on Friday, semiconductor manufacturer MPI’s share price had pared gains at RM49.54 after rising as much as RM2 or 4.17% to RM50, while industrial-automation specialist Genetec had pared gains at RM49.72 after climbing as much as 32 sen or 0.64% to RM50.

Top gainer MPI saw 257,600 shares traded, while Genetec registered a transaction volume of 195,500 shares.

Both are constituents of the Technology Index, which settled up 1.38% at 12.30pm.

In the US, the Nasdaq closed up 128.72 points or 0.81% at a record high of 15,940.31 overnight.

Reuters reported that both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose on Thursday, extending their streaks of record-high closes into a sixth session as chipmaker stocks surged following Qualcomm's strong financial forecast and as investors digested the US Federal Reserve's decision to start reducing its monthly bond purchases.

Year to date, MPI and Genetec's share prices had risen substantially, with MPI rising from its closing price of RM25.50 on Jan 4 and Genetec climbing to present levels from RM1.80.

MPI’s record-high intraday share price of RM50 gave the company a market value of about RM9.95 billion based on the firm’s 198.9 million issued shares as at Aug 30, 2021 as indicated in its latest annual report.

Genetec’s all-time-high intraday share price of RM50, meanwhile, brought its market capitalisation to around RM2.6 billion based on the company’s latest-reported number of issued shares at 52.02 million, according to its Bursa filing on Tuesday.

Malaysian markets resumed trading on Friday (Nov 5), following a holiday on Thursday (Nov 4) in conjunction with the Deepavali festival.