KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia stayed in the black at lunch break on bargain hunting in selected heavyweights.

At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,658.97, up 3.84 points, after moving between 1,648.66 and 1,664.53 throughout the morning session.

On the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 389 to 359, with 343 counters unchanged, 631 untraded and 11 others were suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.17 billion shares worth RM835.29 billion.

Hong Leong Investment Bank said investors would closely monitor the reopening of the Shanghai Stock Exchange today after the China Securities Regulator said it would suspend its four-day-old circuit-breaker-system.

While the suspension was a positive move but such flip-flop policy in a short span of time may backfire and the market would continue to witness  short-term jitters, said the research house.

Hence, KLCI’s near-term outlook would remain choppy amid blowing headwinds in overseas markets (such as suppressed commodity prices, fears of hard landing in China economy, revival of geopolitical conflicts in Middle East and North Korea).

In regional markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 recovered 25.10 points to 17,792.44, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng erased 647.47 points to 20,333.34 and Singapore’s Straits Times was 23.46 points higher at 2,753.37.

Among top gainers, BAT accumulated RM1.04 to RM54.54, Petronas Dagangan increased 30 sen to RM24.02, Karex rose 20 sen to RM4.60 and KLK was 18 sen firmer to RM23.16.

Of heavyweights, Maybank added four sen to RM8.34, TNB inched up two sen to RM13.14 but Public Bank shed six sen to RM18.28 and Petronas Chemicals declined two sen to RM7.45.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index went up 13.91 to 11,615.79, the FBMT100 Index increased 14.58 points to 11,285 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked 2.57 points at 12,613.03.

The FBM 70 decreased 24.399 points to 13,072.90 and the FBM Ace was higher by 14.02 points to 6,299.77. 

Sector-wise, the Industrial Index rose 8.92 points to 3,201.30, the Finance Index contracted 11.43 points for 13,922.36 and the Plantation Index recovered 8.49 points to 7,659.92. — Bernama