KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 ― Bursa Malaysia was mixed at mid-afternoon today as the market participants adopted a wait-and-see stance prior to the announcement by Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to maintain the Overnight Policy Rate at three per cent.

At 3pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,756.83, trimmed 0.41 of-a-point from yesterday’s close of 1,757.24.

On the scoreboard, gainers led losers 414 to 302 with 378 counters unchanged, 700 untraded and 33 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.05 billion shares worth RM1 billion.

In a statement today BNM said, the headline inflation moderated to 3.9 per cent in May due mainly to the decline in domestic fuel prices during the month.

"It is expected to moderate in the second half of the year mainly reflecting the waning effect of global cost factors,” it said.

Going forward, it said, the more favourable global growth prospects would lead to sustained export performance and generate positive spillovers to the domestic economy, while private consumption would be underpinned by higher wages and employment.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was up 1.3 points to 12,516.06, FBM Ace chalked up 69.65 points to 6,668.9 and FBM 70 improved  22.37 points to 14,888.71.

However, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 19.61 points to 12,726.7 while the FBMT100 Index expanded 2.34 points to 12,162.06.

The Finance Index increased 19.7 points to 16,686.61, Plantation Index rose 2.88 points to 7,859.83 while the Industrial Index shed 0.68 of-a-point to 3,260.92.

Among heavyweights, Public Bank and CIMB rose two sen each to RM20.36 and RM6.33, respectively, Sime Darby gained a sen to RM9.55 and Petronas Chemicals was up three sen to RM6.93.

TNB was flat at RM14.16.

Maybank eased one sen to RM9.62 and Axiata declined 19 sen to RM4.68.

Of the actives, Frontken inched up 1.5 sen to 36 sen, Systech rose 2.5 sen to 35 sen, while UMW Oil & Gas lost three sen to 30.5 sen and Orion IXL inched down half-a-sen to 18.5 sen. ― Bernama