KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — Bursa Malaysia remained higher at mid-morning today, as bargain hunting emerged in heavyweight stocks after two days of losses.
At 11.00am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 5.24 points to 1,584.15 from Tuesday’s close of 1,578.91.
The index opened 5.47 points higher at 1,584.38.
On the broader market, losers beat gainers 445 versus 381, while 443 counters were unchanged, 863 untraded and 10 others suspended.
Total volume stood at 2.23 billion shares worth RM1.14 billion.
In a note today, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said Wall Street took a breather following a record breaking run as profit-taking took hold of the market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing almost 100 points to close around the 33,400 level while both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices closed flat.
In view of this, it said the regional markets were expected to remain mixed today despite the futures showing some mild rebound.
“On the local front, the FBM KLCI closed below the 1,580 mark as market consolidation continues. The lack of fresh catalysts coupled with some offloading by foreign funds has kept market undertone weaker.
“As such, we reckon the index to be stuck within the 1,575-1,585 range today as sentiments remain cautious,” it added.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM8.32, Public Bank and Tenaga gained two sen each to RM4.22 and RM10.18, respectively, IHH Healthcare eased one sen to RM5.29, while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM7.95.
Among the active counters, Dagang NeXchange rose six sen to 86.5 sen, Focus Dynamic warrant edged up half-a-sen to 1.5 sen, Berjaya Corp improved 1.5 sen to 42 sen, Dataprep shed 13.5 sen to 96.5 sen, while Macpie was flat at 10.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was up 24.92 points to 11,743.54, the FBMT 100 increased 19.34 points to 11,391.76, the FBM Emas Shariah advanced 33.57 points to 13,008.78, and the FBM ACE expanded 38.47 points to 9,669.62.
The FBM 70 fell 43.56 points to 15,754.0.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index went up 51.41 points to 6,991.04, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.28 of-a-point to 193.42, and the Financial Services Index gained 19.66 points to 15,260.02. — Bernama
