KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia were firmer at mid-morning today amid interest seen in selected heavyweights and penny stocks.

At 11.06am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,777.84, up 5.22 points.

RHB Retail Research said there is a greater possibility that the market would experience weakness in the coming weeks, unless the FBM KLCI stages a massive rebound today or tomorrow to reverse the current negative market sentiment.

“Nevertheless, as far as the near-term market outlook is concerned, it is still clearly bullish,” it said in a note today.    

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index surged 54.90 points to 16,803.48, the Industrial Index added 1.36 points to 3,026.12 but the Plantation Index fell 9.91 points to 8,308.41.

The FBM Emas Index climbed 38.45 points to 12,369.83, the FBM100 Index improved 34.62 points to 12,119.58, the FBM 70 Index increased 36.60 points to 14,193.60 and the FBM ACE Index gained 33.11 points to 5,032.07.

Market breadth was positive as gainers outpaced losers 365 to 179, while 234 counters were unchanged, 799 untraded and 13 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 487.599 million shares worth RM568.469 million.

Among actives, Sona Petroleum shares and warrants each added one sen to 43 sen and 23.5 sen respectively, TH Heavy Engineering earned 1.5 sen to 83 sen and Daya Materials gained two sen to 27 sen.

BIMB Holdings rose nine sen to RM4.11 after it announced the proposed acquisitions of Dubai Financial Group LLC and Lembaga Tabung Haji’s block of shares in Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd.             

Among heavyweights, Maybank went up six sen to RM10.32, CIMB and Sime Darby each inched up one sen to RM7.88 and RM9.49 respectively while Maxis and Petronas Chemicals both shed three sen to RM7.08 and RM6.59 respectively. – Bernama