KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — Bursa Malaysia traded marginally higher at midday today as its benchmark index was lifted by buying support, amid a positive external backdrop, dealers said.
At midday, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was quoted at 1,799.54, up 1.8 points, after hovering between 1,798.87 and 1,803.31 throughout the morning session.
IHH Healthcare, the largest contributor to the composite index with 1.026 points, saw its share gaining seven sen to RM4.08, with 3.016 million shares changing hands.
A dealer said most Asian stock markets traded higher today as investors took cue from upbeat US corporate earnings announcements, as well as Japanese’s election outcome, which saw the country’s ruling party win a majority in Parliament’s upper house.
However, caution over China’s economic progress limited gains, as last week’s data showed economic growth slowing for a second quarter.
On the home front, the Finance Index rose 12.41 points to 17,273.16 and the Industrial Index gained 4.11 points to 3,050.07.But the Plantation Index declined 13.02 points to 8,404.9.
The FBM Emas Index earned 4.59 points to 12,547.81 and the FBMT100 increased 6.43 points to 12,281.22.
However, the FBM 70 Index lost 16.48 points to 14,439.14 and the FBM ACE Index fell 18.96 points to 4,974.9.
Losers led gainers 341 to 313, with 300 counters unchanged, 626 untraded and 14 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 709.952 million shares worth RM679.478 million.
Among actives, both Daya Materials and Flonic Hi-Tec inched up half a sen each to 27 sen and 10.5 sen respectively, but TH Heavy Engineering shed three sen to 91.5 sen.
For the heavyweights, Maybank and Axiata Group earned two sen each to RM10.66 and RM6.80 respectively, CIMB perked four sen to RM8.50, Sime Darby improved one sen to RM9.50 and Maxis bagged three sen to RM7.06. — Bernama
