KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 ― Bursa Malaysia turned slightly higher at mid-morning as some buying support in selected financial services counters cancelled earlier losses, despite weaker sentiment in regional markets.
At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) inched up 2.40 points to 1,552.57 from yesterday's close of 1,550.17.
However on the scoreboard, decliner outpaced gainers 591 to 215, while 339 counters were unchanged, 1,122 untraded, and 15 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.79 billion units worth RM927.62 million.
ActivTrades’ Anderson Alves said that Asian equities were off to a mixed start on Tuesday following a downbeat session on Wall Street where stocks finished off lows, with the Nasdaq recovering from a near 3.0 per cent drop as US Treasury yields wobbled.
“Traders will now watch the bond/equity correlation closely as the US Federal Reserve (US Fed) signals a more hawkish tone for the year ahead by bringing quantitative tightening into the monetary policy blend.
“If the front-end and the back-end of the US Treasury yield curve keep rising, it could cause a strong repricing in high beta stocks and long duration names in the emerging market space,” he said in a research note today.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank climbed 10 sen to RM8.44, Public Bank advanced 3.0 sen to RM4.21, Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM8.90 while IHH Healthcare declined 6.0 sen to RM6.62 and CIMB slipped 5.0 sen to RM5.62.
As for the actives, MMag eased half-a-sen to 9.5 sen, DNex shed 4.0 sen to 84.5 sen, while AHB Holdings improved 2.5 sen to 28 sen and SMTrack earned half-a-sen to 30.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 11.57 points weaker at 11,219.12, FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 72.72 points to 11,953.92, FBMT 100 Index shed 5.72 points to 10,917.53, FBM 70 dropped 105.76 points to 14,116.60 and the FBM ACE lost 156.42 points to 6,597.7.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index trimmed 14.54 points to 6,716.35, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.68 of-a-point to 202.26, while the Financial Services Index surged 220.15 points to 16,086.48. ― Bernama
