BURSA MALAYSIA STAYS HIGHER AT MIDDAY

By Zufazlin Baharuddin

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia’s key index remained positive at midday today, mainly boosted by plantation stocks.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 2.06 points to 1,611.32 from yesterday’s close of 1,609.26.

The benchmark index began the day 0.76 of-a-point higher at 1,610.02.

However, the market breadth was negative as decliners outpaced gainers 513 to 346, while 497 counters were unchanged, 1,048 untraded and 13 suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.75 billion shares valued at RM1.09 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng told Bernama that the crude palm oil futures are rising to their highest level since June 20, 2022, boosting demand for the plantation stocks.

Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank said despite Wall Street’s post-election rally amid optimism surrounding Donald Trump’s landslide victory and expectations of pro-growth and deregulatory policies, most Asian markets were on a downtrend.

“The decline was mainly driven by China’s latest sluggish consumer price index (CPI) data and unimpressive fiscal plan, especially with Trump’s 2.0 presidency triggering fresh uncertainties over China’s economy,” it said in a note today.

Moving forward, it said this week, all eyes will be on the CPI, producer price index and retail sales data, as well as speeches by US Federal Reserve (Fed) officials to seek clues on the Fed’s policy direction following Trump’s return to the White House.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank gained 12 sen to RM10.46, CIMB Group added eight sen to RM8.24 and Public Bank rose three sen to RM4.44, while Tenaga Nasional and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM14.10 and RM7.20, respectively.

Among the active stocks, Mpire Global edged up 1.5 sen to 21.5 sen, Azam Jaya added 11 sen to RM1.20 sen, and Capital A gained three sen to RM1.01, while Cape EMS was flat at 37 sen and Velesto Energy slid half-a-sen to 18 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 21.80 points to 12,201.68, the FBMT 100 Index gained 25.14 points to 11,906.23, the FBM 70 Index was up 74.04 points to 17,823.27 and the FBM ACE Index added 3.98 points to 5,130.61.20.62.

However, the FBM Emas Shariah Index edged down 1.17 points to 12,165.69.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased by 1.17 points to 170.36, and the Energy Index dropped 4.88 points to 827.93, while the Plantation Index gained 82.60 points to 7,845.48, and the Financial Services Index climbed 128.17 points to 19,189.95.

-- BERNAMA