KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 ― Bursa Malaysia turned mixed at mid-morning as some profit-taking in selected heavyweights trumped earlier gains, dealers said.
At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped 3.22 points to 1,561.07 from yesterday's close of 1,564.29.
However, on the scoreboard, gainers outpaced decliners 447 to 306, while 375 counters were unchanged, 1,139 untraded and 31 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.43 billion units worth RM577.12 million.
ActivTrades’ Anderson Alves said that Asian equities were higher on Wednesday following the gains in the energy and technology sector on Wall Street overnight.
“Meanwhile, the focus was on the United States (US) Federal Reserve (Fed) chair, Jerome Powell's hearing in the Senate, where he abstained from ramping up the hawkish rhetoric.
“Without the hawkish dive from the Fed, the current market conditions could act as the main driver for a risk-on trade in Asia Pacific equities, mainly in the energy and technology sectors,” he said in a research note today.
Back home, heavyweights Maybank declined 6.0 sen to RM8.44, Public Bank and IHH Healthcare fell 1.0 sen each to RM4.22 and RM6.64, respectively, and CIMB shed 2.0 sen to RM5.60, while Petronas Chemicals rose 11 sen to RM9.01.
As for the actives, OCR reduced 1.0 sen to 17.5 sen, SMTrack eased half-a-sen to 29.5 sen and Cuscapi went down 4.5 sen to 36 sen, while Trive Property was flat at 11.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 2.65 points weaker at 11,284.92, FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 25.32 points to 12,061.69, FBMT 100 Index shed 8.47 points to 10,978.30, FBM 70 improved 50.68 points to 14,199.69 and the FBM ACE eased 0.21 of-a-point to 6,616.46.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index trimmed 27.63 points to 6,740.99, the Industrial Products and Services Index earned 1.39 points to 204.90, while the Financial Services Index lost 93.90 points to 16,083.23. ― Bernama
