KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 ― Bursa Malaysia remained mixed at midday today after rangebound trade in the early session, as persistent buying interest in trade and services counters, provided some support to gains by the key index.
At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.5 of-a-point lower at 1,762.49 from yesterday's close of 1,761.99.
The index opened 4.01 points higher at 1,766.0 and moved between 1,761.16 and 1,766.47 during the morning session.
Losers outpaced gainers 431 to 279 with 360 counters unchanged, 769 untraded and 25 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 844.52 million shares worth RM688.57 million.
Of the trade and services-related heavyweights, Genting Group counters, namely Genting Malaysia and Genting led the gains by bagging seven sen each to RM6.12 and RM9.58 respectively, followed by TM which rose four sen to RM6.37, Petronas Dagangan improving 12 sen to RM23.82 and Tenaga advancing two sen to RM14.20.
A dealer said investors remained optimistic over Malaysia's market, particularly after the International Monetary Fund upgraded the country’s economic growth rate for 2017 to 4.8 per cent from 4.5 per cent yesterday.
“Today, the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) also revised its forecast on Malaysia's gross domestic product growth to 4.8 per cent this year, up 0.3 percentage point from the projection in April,” he added.
However, in a note today, Public Investment Bank Bhd pointed out that some market participants would keep a wary eye on political developments in Washington, while awaiting the outcome of a meeting of the two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting, expected to begin later today.
On the technical front, RHB Retail Research said in a note that immediate support was seen at the level of 1,753, with immediate resistance set at 1,784 points.
“Breaking this would likely see the index testing the psychological level of 1,800 points,” it added.
Among actives, MLAB, Sterling Progress, GlobalTec and Mpay all added half-a-sen to 17.5 sen, 16 sen, seven sen and 27 sen respectively, while Borneo Oil remained flat at 10.5 sen.
Concrete Engineering Products led the list of top gainers in improving 30 sen to RM1.75, while Hong Leong Financial was the top loser in easing 22 sen to RM16.96.
The FBM Emas Index declined 6.36 points to 12,549.71, the FBMT100 Index fell 5.47 points to 12,192.15 and the FBM 70 slumped 40.19 points to 14,891.43.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index weakened 13.29 points to 12,718.13 and the FBM Ace was 84.45 points lower at 6,611.70.
On a sectoral basis, the Plantation Index shed 22.96 points to 7,830.79, the Industrial Index eased 2.49 points to 3,275.77 and the Finance Index lost 4.67 points to 16,698.99. ― Bernama
