Bursa Malaysia Ends Morning Session Mixed

KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session mixed at midday as mild profit-taking in selected financial and telecommunication counters limited gains.

Maybank eased seven sen to RM9.74 and CelcomDigi went down six sen to RM3.84.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) edged up 0.07 of a point to 1,528.23 from last Thursday’s close of 1,528.16.

The benchmark index opened 5.25 points higher at 1,533.41. The market was closed last Friday for the Maal Hijrah public holiday.

However, the broader market was negative with 414 decliners outnumbering 398 gainers, while 507 counters were unchanged, 1,120 untraded and 102 suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.16 billion units worth RM1.05 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng expects the local institutions to continue to prop up the market, and foreign funds to trickle in with the solid performance on Wall Street.

“Wall Street closed broadly higher (last week) as sentiment was boosted by the United States (US)-China trade talks, whereby an agreement may have been reached. As such, the US 10-year yield inched higher to 4.27 per cent.

“Back home, the FBM KLCI displayed another positive performance as the index closed almost at the 1,530 level on Thursday. As such, we expect the index to hover within the 1.530-1,540 range today,” he said in a note today.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank lost one sen to RM4.33, Tenaga Nasional rose 14 sen to RM14.40, CIMB was flat at RM6.80, IHH gained three sen to RM6.75, while Hong Leong dropped 26 sen to RM19.52.

As for the most active stocks, EA Holdings added half-a-sen to one sen, NexG climbed one sen to 37 sen, while Borneo Oil and Tanco each fell half-a-sen to half-a-sen and 92.5 sen, and Top Glove declined one sen to 71 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index climbed 23.07 points to 11,421.87, the FBMT 100 Index garnered 22.64 points to 11,204.00, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 49.56 points to 11,390.69.

The FBM 70 Index advanced 130.45 points to 16,401.110 and the FBM ACE Index went down  18.20 points to 4,456.56.

By sector, the Financial Services Index fell 62.21 points to 17,674.89, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.19 of-a-point to 152.17, the Plantation Index slid 1.75 points to 7,327.27, and the Energy Index added 1.96 points to 734.64.

-- BERNAMA