KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 ― Bursa Malaysia continued its downtrend at mid-afternoon but the key index managed to regain some lost ground to hover above the 1,400-point level as the advance by heavyweight banking stocks provided support.
At 3pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) slipped by 3.72 points to 1,401.21 from 1,404.93 at yesterday’s close.
The barometer index had opened 1.11 points higher at 1,406.04 but subsequently retreated to as low as 1,398.83 at one point during the session.
The market breadth was also negative with losers leading gainers 439 to 333, while 369 counters were unchanged, 1,123 untraded, and 60 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.56 billion units worth RM1.09 billion.
Heavyweights Maybank added 4.0 sen to RM8.64, Hong Leong Bank was 18.0 sen higher at RM19.68 and AmBank rose 7.0 sen to RM3.58. Press Metal declined 11.0 sen to RM4.79 and Tenaga Nasional eased 15.0 sen to RM9.60.
Among the actives, Dagang Nexchange gained 2.5 sen to 41.5 sen while YTL and Bahvest Resources gained 1.5 sen each to 91.5 sen and 21.5 sen, respectively. Widad Group edged up half-a-sen to 43.5 sen but Cloudpoint Technology trimmed 3.0 sen to 48.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went down 15.0 points to 10,310.05, the FBMT 100 Index gave up 15.48 points to 10,016.13 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 28.18 points to 10,681.89.
The FBM ACE Index was 13.04 points lower at 4,958.04 and the FBM 70 Index climbed 24.72 points to 13,606.34.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index was down 1.09 points to 163.44, the Plantation Index dwindled 60.56 points to 6,733.85 and the Financial Services Index put on 34.48 points to 15,331.76.
The Energy Index advanced 11.51 points to 825.38. ― Bernama
