KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 ― Bursa Malaysia extends gains at mid-morning albeit in cautious trading ahead of Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monetary Policy Meeting scheduled for later today.
At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,840.52, up 3.48 points from yesterday’s close of 1,837.04. It opened 0.49 of-a-point lower at 1,836.55.
Overall market breadth was slightly negative as losers led gainers 356 to 337, while 395 counters were unchanged, 781 untraded and 31 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.31 billion shares worth RM789.88 million.
A dealer said the local bourse had started to see some buying support mainly in finance-related stocks, which were expected to continue rising.
“This is on the back of an expectation that the central bank would raise its interest rate at today’s meeting although some analysts believe it would likely maintain the overnight policy rate,” the dealer said.
Among the finance-related stocks, Maybank rose seven sen to RM9.98, Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank advanced 10 sen each to RM21.06 and RM18.10 respectively, while AMMB was two sen better at RM4.77.
Yesterday, the Department of Statistics Malaysia announced the inflation rate for the country for 2017 stood at 3.7 per cent, rising by 3.5 per cent to 120.9 in December 2017, from 116.8 in the corresponding month of the preceding year, mainly due to transport and food and beverages.
The FBM Emas Index rose 20.30 points to 13,306.09, the FBMT 100 Index added 21.04 points to 12,971.90 and the FBM 70 gained 16.61 points to 16,713.73.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index inched up 5.62 points to 13,697.52 but the FBM Ace fell 5.82 points to 6,710.29.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index improved 50.79 points to 17,443.68, the Industrial Index rose 10.17 points to 3,365.85 and the Plantation Index was 4.36 points better at 8,060.52.
Among other heavyweights, Tenaga and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM15.84 and RM8.00, respectively, while IHH and CIMB fell two points each to RM5.98 and RM6.93, respectively. ― Bernama
