.JPG "An investor monitors the stock prices in the gallery of the RHB Investment Bank Bhd headquarters in Kuala Lumpur March 17, 2020. u00e2u20acu2022 Picture by Hari Anggara")
KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — After recording impressive gains yesterday, Bursa Malaysia takes an early breather in the opening session today driven by volatile trading with equal number of winners and losers.
On the overall index, the ACE market still records positive momentum as it rose 0.42 per cent while investors’ favourite; the healthcare counters took a backseat, declining1.92 per cent.
As at 9.03am, the main index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) opened marginally lower at 1.63 points to 1,604.79 after opening 3.12 points at the opening bell.
Market breadth was even at 200 between gainers and decliners while 276 counters were unchanged, 1,324 untraded and 16 others suspended.
Total volume stood at 843.65 million units worth RM241.81 million.
An analyst said demand for lower liners will continue, especially for tech-related stocks as their potential are brighter in facing another surge of Covid-19 infections.
“Compared to the bluechips especially banking that has been under pressure since early this year, investors are banking on smaller returns but steady outlook for now,” she said.
On the FBM KLCI, Malacca Securities said the upbeat momentum of the main index will continue to be induced by the strong performance of glove heavyweights, namely Hartalega and TopGlove.
However, gains may be limited owing to the overnight weakness on Wall Street, which may permeate to the Asia equities.
“Amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases globally, the buying momentum in glove makers stocks may provide some cushion to further weakness,” it said.
At early trade, Hartalega and IHH slip as it declines eight sen and five sen respectively to RM17.90 and RM5.35.
Banking heavyweights, Public Bank also witnessed a dip of four sen to RM17.88 while CIMB group was two sen lower to RM3.64.
More than half of the index was opened untraded.
On actives, technology counters continue its upbeat momentum with NETX opened half-a-sen higher to 1.5 sen, while Eduspec and Vivocom were flat at two sen and 3.5 sen but recorded more than 300 million volume transacted.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index edged down 14.39 points to 11,368.19, the FBMT 100 Index depreciated 12.51 points to 11,213.52 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 18.63 points weaker at 13,211.57.
The FBM 70 inched down 20.27 points to 14,254.60 and the FBM ACE was 31.77 points better at 7,940.62.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was down 8.68 points to 13,505.95, the Plantation Index strengthened 8.03 points to 7,127.87 and the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.06 of-a-point to 141.68. — Bernama
