KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened lower in early trading today but rose thereafter led by buying interest, mainly in heavyweights and penny stocks.
HwangDBS Vickers Research said the key index could be striving to find its footing ahead after tumbling by 49.7 points or 2.8 per cent in five straight days.
“On the chart, the benchmark index’s downside risk will probably be cushioned by the critical support line at 1,720,” the research house said in a note today.
Over on Wall Street last night, leading US equity barometers ended between -0.1 per cent and +0.7 per cent, pending the release later tonight of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting minutes held on July 30 and 31.
“The technical rebound also came as sentiments were lifted by better retail sales report,” HwangDBS said.
On the scoreboard, the Plantation Index gained 35.54 points to 8,234.23 and the Industrial Index was up 3.55 points to 2,944.83 and the Finance Index surged 31.61 points to 16,489.6.
The FBM Emas Index firmed 11.9 points to 12,176.98, the FBM100 Index rose 9.5 points to 11,908.91 but the FBM 70 Index eased 0.27 of a point to 13,938.86.
Gainers outpaced losers 168 to 79, with 154 counters unchanged, 1,184 untraded and 12 others were suspended. Turnover totalled 129.676 million shares worth RM83.088 million.
Among actives, Malaysia Airlines and Flonic Hi-Tec edged up half-a-sen to 34.5 sen and 18.5 sen respectively. Instacom Group and Ablegroup were up one sen to 41 sen and 17 sen respectively.
Heavyweights Maybank and CIMB rose 3 sen each to RM9.99 and RM7.61, UEM Sunrise garnered 4 sen to RM2.62, YTL Corp was flat at RM1.60 while Axiata fell 5 sen to RM6.60. — Bernama
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