BURSA MALAYSIA EXTENDS RALLY IN EARLY TRADE

By Anas Abu Hassan

KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia continued its uptrend in early trading today, extending its two-year high on sustained buying interest and following Wall Street's positive performance overnight, a dealer said.

At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.71 points to 1,608.39 from yesterday’s close of 1,605.68.

bootstrap slideshow

The benchmark index opened 1.28 points higher at 1,606.96.

In the broader market, gainers outnumbered decliners 220 to 158, while 327 counters remained unchanged, with 1,624 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 192.48 million units worth RM93.48 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street barely maintained its ongoing uptrend as traders are still waiting for more clues regarding the Federal Reserve's potential interest rate adjustments.

Back home, he noted that the FBM KLCI finally broke the 1,600 points barrier, underpinned by continuous accumulation in blue chips by foreign funds.

"Though we would prefer the ascension to persist, an intermittent correction may occur, allowing the market to digest recent solid performance, which is deemed healthy,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added three sen to RM9.87, Public Bank and CIMB eased one sen each to RM4.20 and RM6.80 respectively, Tenaga Nasional lost six sen to RM12.42 and IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.31.

As for the actives, Ingenieur was down one sen at 7.5 sen, while TWL, Sapura Energy, and Jaks Resources were all unchanged at 2.5 sen, five sen, and 13.5 sen, respectively.

Meanwhile, He Group rose 4.5 sen to 57.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 21.31 points to 12,119.78, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 19.19 points to 11,735.04 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 24.30 points to 12,327.18.

The FBM 70 Index climbed 25.40 points to 16,939.22 and the FBM ACE Index gained 6.31 points to 5,094.20.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index inched up 2.28 points to 17,527.36, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.53 of a point to 193.07, the Plantation Index fell 6.03 points to 7,433.62, and the Energy Index picked up 3.86 points to 979.87.

-- BERNAMA