KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 ― Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session mixed due to profit-taking activities in heavyweights, coupled with bargain hunting in small-cap stocks.
At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,550.48, down 1.16 points from yesterday's close of 1,551.64.
After opening 0.01 of-a-point weaker at 1,551.63, the local index moved between 1,547.94 and 1,554.42 throughout the session.
Market breadth was positive with gainers leading decliners 397 to 384, while 325 counters remained unchanged, 887 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.49 billion shares worth RM1.16 billion.
In a note, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said investors would continue to monitor for developments over the Novel Coronavirus outbreak which has seen the number of victims rising to an alarming rate.
It said should the aforementioned virus outbreak not contained over the near term, further downside across global equities market could be expected.
“Although the key index is already retesting the four-month low, we think that bargain hunting activities may take precedence amid the oversold condition following approximately 2.8 per cent slump recorded over the past week.
“A recovery is expected to be mild with gains limited towards the 1,575 for the time being. However, should the 1,550 support level fails to hold, further weakness may drag the local bourse towards the 1,535 support level,” it added.
Of heavyweights, Maybank eased one sen to RM8.45, Public Bank added two sen to RM18.98, Tenaga declined 14 sen to RM12.60 and Petronas Chemicals was six sen lower at RM6.58.
Of the actives, Avillion was half-a-sen higher at 16 sen, Careplus eased three sen to 36.5 sen and DGB Asia was flat at 12.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 1.18 points lower at 11,068.45 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 28.63 points to 11,767.31.
The FBMT 100 Index declined 4.42 points to 10,861.86, the FBM 70 gained 9.60 points to 13,945.97 and the FBM Ace rose 14.94 points to 5,582.72.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.52 of-a-point to 147.72, the Financial Services Index was 23.10 points higher at 14,908.91 and the Plantation Index garnered 32.68 points to 7,222. ― Bernama
