BURSA MALAYSIA HIGHER IN EARLY TRADE

By Anas Abu Hassan

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 (Bernama) --Bursa Malaysia regained its strength to trend higher in early trade today, tracking Wall Street’s performance last week despite muted global sentiment amid the holiday season.

At 9.06 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 3.28 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 1,680.38 from Friday’s close of 1,677.10. The index opened 0.21 of a point better at 1,677.31.

The broader market was almost flat with gainers leading decliners 134 versus 133, while 302 counters were unchanged, 2,164 untraded, and 58 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 67.16 million shares valued at RM33.36 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd's vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng, said trading on Wall Street was largely lacklustre last Friday due to the holiday season.

On the home front, he said the local bourse is also expected to be slightly muted today as market participants await fresh catalysts.

“We expect trading to remain muted but well supported, with the index likely to trade within the 1,670–1,685 range today,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB added four sen each to RM10.44 and RM8.19, respectively, while Public Bank, Tenaga Nasional and IHH were all unchanged at RM4.52, RM13.66 and RM8.59, respectively.

On the most active list, TWL and Velesto were flat at 2.5 sen and 28 sen, respectively, VS Industry rose half a sen to 48 sen and Pharmaniaga eased half a sen to 29.5 sen.

Of the top gainers, Malayan Cement gained 10 sen to RM7.73, Hong Leong Bank increased eight sen to RM22.50, Press Metal added seven sen to RM7.25 and Hong Leong Financial put on six sen to RM19.10.

As for the top losers, Allianz lost 14 sen to RM20.20, Telekom Malaysia and Hong Leong Industries gave up six sen each to RM8.01 and RM16.50, respectively, and H&L High-Tech dropped 4.5 sen to 60 sen.  

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index grew 19.86 points to 12,308.00, the FBMT Top 100 Index advanced 21.21 points to 12,111.88, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 16.40 points to 12,122.01. 

The FBM Mid 70 Index went up 18.37 points to 16,820.94, and the FBM ACE Index gained 2.73 points to 4,862.52

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index garnered 43.77 points to 19,672.15, the Energy Index gained 1.29 points to 767.06, and the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.62 of a point to 174.65, while the Plantation Index fell 1.24 points to 8,298.28.

-- BERNAMA