KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) turned mixed at mid-morning as narrow gains in selected plantation and finance stocks limited losses, dealers said.
At 11am, the benchmark index added 1.01 points to 1,846.87, after opening lower at 1,844.25.
United Plantation was the top contributor to the composite index, gaining 70 sen to RM27.10, while Hong Leong Financial rose 12 sen to RM16.82.
On the scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index improved 4.58 points to 12,728.84, the FBMT100 Index increased 4.23 points to 12,392.63 while the FBM Emas Shariah Index expanded 4.25 points to 13,268.61.
The FBM 70 slipped 5.09 points to 13,731.08 and the FBM Ace declined 1.43 points to 7,299.65.
On a sectorial basis, the Finance Index bagged 26.57 points to 16,374.47, but the Industrial Index slipped 11.77 points to 3,394.21 and the Plantation Index trimmed 12.68 points to 7,723.79.
On the broader market, market breadth was still negative with decliners outpacing gainers 353 to 259 while 292 counters were unchanged, 905 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.12 billion shares worth RM571.13 million.
Among actives, Frontken advanced 3.5 sen to 29 sen, Bioalpha perked six sen to 44.5 sen, Kanger International was one sen higher at 31 sen while DGB Asia was flat at 13.5 sen.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.49, TNB added 20 sen to RM14.64, Public Bank went up six sen to RM19.52 but Axiata fell one sen to RM7.01. — Bernama
