BURSA MALAYSIA ENDS MORNING SESSION MIXED

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session mixed, tracking regional peers' performance amid positive cues from Wall Street last week.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 6.09 points to 1,597.50 from Friday’s close of 1,591.41.

The benchmark index opened 2.69 points higher at 1,594.10 and moved between 1,592.57 and 1,601.90 throughout the session.

However, the broader market was negative with decliners outpacing gainers 513 to 338, while 484 counters were unchanged, 1,098 untraded and 19 suspended.

Turnover stood at 1.49 billion units worth RM1 billion.

In a note, brokerage firm Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said it expects buying interest in the local bourse to remain focused on export-oriented sectors such as technology and gloves, supported by the anticipation of sustained strength in the US dollar.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank gained eight sen to RM10.04, Public Bank and CIMB increased six sen each to RM4.52 and RM8.01, respectively, Tenaga Nasional added four sen to RM13.98, and IHH Healthcare was two sen higher at RM7.05.  

As for the active stocks, Key Alliance and Velesto were unchanged at one sen and 15 sen, respectively, Top Glove was up two sen to RM1.34 while Aneka Jaringan shed half-a-sen to 16.5 sen.  

On the index board, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dropped 6.51 points to 12,215.30, while the FBMT 100 Index firmed 32.80 points to 11,941.40, and the FBM Emas Index rose 29.37 points to 12,252.31.

The FBM 70 Index advanced 3.25 points to 18,380.72, while the FBM ACE Index edged down 17.90 points to 5,250.75.  

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index climbed 148.79 points to 18,852.1 and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.26 of-a-point to 170.52.

 Meanwhile, the Plantation Index eased 2.10 points to 7,495.17 and the Energy Index decreased 1.71 points to 802.40.  

-- BERNAMA