BURSA MALAYSIA HIGHER AT MIDDAY, TRACKING STRONGER REGIONAL PERFORMANCE

By Danni Haizal Danial Donald

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher, in line with stronger regional markets, as investors looked past concerns over the ongoing United States (US) government shutdown, an analyst said.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.44 points to 1,629.94, from Wednesday’s close of 1,627.50.

The benchmark index opened 1.37 points higher at 1,628.87, and moved between 1,627.67 and 1,632.50 throughout the morning session.

Market breadth was positive, with 578 gainers against 383 decliners. Another 446 counters were unchanged, 1,195 remained untraded, and seven were suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.55 billion shares worth RM1.53 billion.

Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was 0.04 per cent higher at 26,840.95, Japan’s Nikkei advanced 1.48 per cent to 48,440.13, South Korea’s Kospi gained 2.70 per cent to 3,549.21, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index slid 0.19 per cent to 4,447.86.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said market sentiment remained positive as investors looked beyond the US government shutdown and uncertainty over the number of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.

“As such, we remain adamant that the local bourse will scale higher, and we expect the index to trend between the 1,625-1,635 range today,” Thong told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank slid two sen to RM9.98, Public Bank was one sen easier at RM4.33, CIMB Group fell six sen to RM7.60, and IHH Healthcare slipped 10 sen to RM8.09, while Tenaga Nasional gained six sen to RM13.26.

In active trade, Jadi Imaging, Land & General and Cheeding were all 1.5 sen higher at 4.5 sen, 18 sen, and 81.5 sen, respectively, and V.S. Industry inched up half a sen to 56 sen, and Tanco slid one sen to 84 sen.

Top gainers included Malayan Cement and Malaysian Pacific Industries, up 28 sen each to RM7.06 and RM31.30, respectively; Petronas Gas, added 26 sen to RM18.92; Mi Technovation, gained 23 sen to RM2.92, and KESM, 20 sen stronger at RM3.88.

Leading losers were Allianz, down 22 sen to RM18.18; Petronas Dagangan, 14 sen lower at RM22.86; Fraser and Neave dipped 12 sen to RM28.26; KSL and Southern Acids reduced nine sen each to RM2.71 and RM3.28, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 40.811 points to 12,155.41, the FBM 100 Index gained 37.58 points to 11,883.48, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 76.03 points to 12,196.58.

The FBM 70 Index jumped 139.94 points to 17,104.95, while the FBM ACE Index added 10.87 points to 5,279.90.

By sector, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.20 points to 174.72, the Plantation Index rose 42.18 points to 7,872.66, the Energy Index eased 0.66 of a point to 791.37, and the Financial Services Index declined 41.80 points to 18,486.53.

-- BERNAMA