KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — Bursa Malaysia turned mixed amid range-bound and cautious trading, with mild bargain hunting in selected heavyweights seen supporting the barometer index.

At 11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) edged up 0.21 point to 1,388.54 from 1,388.33 at Tuesday’s close.

The key index opened 2.60 points lower at 1,385.73 this morning.

On the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 333 to 257 while 355 counters were unchanged, 1,350 untraded, and 18 others suspended.

Turnover was 1.10 billion units worth RM441.02 million.

In a note, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the FBM KLCI staged a marginal rebound on the local bourse after China’s interest rate cut to support economic growth yesterday; hence bargain-hunting activities may sustain in the near term.

This is despite the pullback on Wall Street ahead of the United States (US) Federal Reserve chair’s testimony to Congress as stocks on the FBM KLCI are fairly oversold, the brokerage firm noted.

"Nevertheless, the upside might be capped over the near term prior to the state elections that will be held in the third quarter of 2023,” it said.

On commodities, it said Brent crude oil traded above US$75 per barrel, while crude palm oil prices remained resilient at above RM3,700 per tonne.

"Given the firm prices, we opine investors may focus on commodity-related sectors such as oil and gas and plantation stocks over the near term,” Malacca Securities said.

It sad that some opportunities may also emerge within the defensive characteristic sectors such as the telecommunication and utilities sectors following the significant selldown yesterday.

"Besides, we remain positive on consumer counters,” it added.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB gained two sen each to RM8.67 and RM5.16, respectively, Public Bank added one sen to RM3.89, Tenaga Nasional shed three sen at RM9.19, and IHH Healthcare fell 11 sen to RM5.89.

Of the actives, Classita edged up half-a-sen to 9.5 sen and RGB International gained 1.5 sen to 32.5 sen, while Borneo Oil, Tanco and Sarawak Consolidated were flat at 1.5 sen, 51 sen and 43.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 6.99 points better at 10,212.53, the FBMT 100 Index climbed 8.27 points to 9,914.76, the FBM 70 Index advanced 39.83 points to 13,421.18 and the FBM ACE Index bagged 2.07 points to 5,078.48, but the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 0.95 of-a-point to 10,511.41.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index shed 2.16 points to 777.84 and the Plantation Index gave up 5.45 points to 6,734.92, while the Financial Services Index gained 15.09 points to 15,328.60 and the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.35 of-a-point to 158.39. — Bernama