KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — Stocks on Bursa Malaysia turned higher mid-day as trading interest in lower liners picked up significantly, dealers said.
At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.27 points higher at 1,830.45 after opening at 1,832.69.
Hong Leong Investment Bank said the wave of risk aversion would continue to sweep across Asian markets this week.
Investors were also awaiting the impending release of the United States’ December 13 Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes and the non-farm payrolls reports.
“Tracking cautious regional markets and post window dressing blues, the FBM KLCI is likely to extend its healthy consolidation before the overbought momentum is fully neutralised,” the investment bank added.
Meanwhile, gainers led losers 355 to 324, with 295 counters unchanged, 572 untraded and 21 others were suspended.
Turnover amounted to 955.33 million shares worth RM809.59 million.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 49.049 points to 16,819.95, the Plantation Index dropped 11.16 points to 8,759.5 and the Industrial Index was 5.49 points higher at 3,109.29.
The FBM Emas Index added 6.36 points to 12,674.32, the FBMT100 Index went up 4.479 points to 12,386.43, the FBM Ace improved 17.62 points to 5,802.82 but the FBM 70 dipped 11.07 points to 14,125.83.
Among actives, Hubline, Tiger Synergy and Ingenuity Consolidated were flat at 6.5 sen, 14 sen and nine sen, respectively.
As for heavyweights, Maybank gained four sen to RM9.97, Tenaga was flat at RM11.12 and Axiata declined one sen to RM6.79. — Bernama
