BURSA MALAYSIA STAYS HIGHER AT MIDDAY

By Nurunnasihah Ahmad Rashid

KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia managed to stay in the positive territory at midday, bolstered by gains in the financial services and consumer products and services counters. 

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.63 points to 1,617.05 from Tuesday's close of 1,614.42.

The key index opened 0.71 of-a-point easier at 1,613.71, subsequently moving between 1,613.65 and 1,619.35 throughout the morning trading session.

However, on the broader market, decliners led gainers 568 to 382, with 498 counters unchanged, 972 untraded and six suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.63 billion units worth RM1.59 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the index is expected to hover within the 1,610-1,620 range today.

“The market undertone is still rather cautious in view of the market volume which has shrunk to below five billion shares,” he told Bernama.

Major regional indices trended mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei 225 easing 0.02 per cent to 41,572.77, South Korea’s Kospi decreasing 0.05 per cent to 2,886.02, and Shanghai SSE Composite Index falling 0.33 per cent to 2,949.66.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.62 per cent to 3,447.36, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.27 per cent to 17,570.70.

Back home, Bursa heavyweights Maybank dropped four sen to RM10.02, Tenaga Nasional fell two sen to RM14.40, and IHH Healthcare declined one sen to RM6.29.

Public Bank increased one sen to RM4.12 and CIMB expanded nine sen to RM7.06.

As for the most active counters, Dataprep perked 2.5 sen to 23.5 sen, Bintai Kinden added one sen to 11 sen and Cabnet advanced 11 sen to 70 sen, while Hubline inched down half-a-sen to 7.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 23.16 points to 12,496.04, the FBMT 100 Index rose 28.93 points to 12,074.86, the FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 21.64 points to 12,849.77 and the FBM 70 Index widened 78.33 points to 18,542.43, while the FBM ACE Index gave up 21.54 points to 5,928.72.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index strengthened 18.42 points to 17,728.19 and the Plantation Index added 31.73 points to 6,963.85, while the Energy Index eased 0.16 points to 984.41 and the Industrial Products and Services Index went down 0.05 of-a-point to 200.04.

-- BERNAMA