Bursa Malaysia Edges Higher At Mid-afternoon
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia remained higher at mid-afternoon, underpinned by sustained buying in selected heavyweights, particularly in the industrial products, utilities and financial services sectors.
At 3 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.57 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 1,640.38, recovering from an early dip after opening 2.73 points lower at 1,635.08. The index closed last Friday at 1,637.81.
Market breadth was negative, with decliners outnumbering gainers 619 to 298. Another 497 stocks were unchanged, 1,349 untraded and 11 suspended.
Turnover amounted to 1.69 billion shares valued at RM1.17 billion.
Most regional markets traded lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.23 per cent to 25,657.48, South Korea’s Kospi Index slid 1.84 per cent to 4,090.59, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index dropped 1.31 per cent to 50,168.11, China’s SSE Composite Index eased 0.52 per cent to 3,869.01, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index edged down 0.12 per cent to 4,580.87.
Among heavyweights, Malayan Banking was flat at RM10.30, Public Bank added two sen to RM4.49, CIMB Group slipped two sen to RM7.88, IHH Healthcare edged up one sen to RM8.62, while Tenaga Nasional gained 10 sen to RM13.12.
On the most active list, Velesto Energy was unchanged at 28 sen, Zetrix AI edged down half a sen to 83 sen, Tanco Holdings rose one sen to RM1.19, VS Industry slipped 2.5 sen to 51.5 sen, while Mega Fortris was flat at 79.5 sen.
Among the top gainers, Far East Holdings jumped 30 sen to RM4.50, Malayan Cement rose 26 sen to RM7.05, Hong Leong Bank added 16 sen to RM21.86, Kuala Lumpur Kepong gained 12 sen to RM19.62, and Press Metal Aluminium advanced 11 sen to RM6.98.
Leading decliners included Nestle, which fell 70 sen to RM112.60, Malaysian Pacific Industries, down 38 sen to RM31.62, Dutch Lady, also lower by 38 sen at RM30.00, Farm Fresh, which retreated 13 sen to RM2.70, and Vitrox Corp, down 10 sen at RM4.15.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index slipped 0.11 of-a-point to 12,073.92, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 5.33 points to 11,903.87, the FBM 70 Index dropped 51.74 points to 16,684.93, and the FBM ACE Index declined 39.03 points to 4,719.16. The FBMT 100 Index, however, rose 5.25 points to 11,868.55.
Sectorally, the Financial Services Index gained 20.35 points to 19,242.05, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.92 of-a-point to 170.09, while the Energy Index fell 5.41 points to 762.38 and the Plantation Index slid 20.09 points to 8,131.18.
-- BERNAMA