BURSA MALAYSIA OPENS SLIGHTLY HIGHER

By Siti Radziah Hamzah

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia began the trading day for the week slightly higher, tracking last Friday’s higher Wall Street performance. 

At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 0.94 of-a-point to 1,620.0 from Friday's close of 1,619.06. The index opened 0.80 of-a-point higher at 1,619.86. 

On the broader market, gainers led decliners 233 to 161, with 359 counters unchanged, 1,713 untraded and 24 suspended. Turnover totalled 239.24 million units worth RM96.07 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd expects traders to take on more exposure on the local front and believes the overall data centre catalysts could boost demand for stocks within the construction, property, building material and utility stocks and are likely to provide buy-on-dip opportunities.

"Also, we favour selected stocks within the gloves, solar, and packaging," the brokerage said in a research note today.

Malacca Securities noted that for this week, the traders would be monitoring China’s economic growth, which would be released later while watching out for core retail sales, industrial production, unemployment claims, and the US corporate earnings.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and TNB added two sen each to RM10.06 and RM14.48, respectively, CelcomDigi was one sen higher at RM3.61, while Public Bank, CIMB, IHH Healthcare and Press Metal were flat at RM4.11, RM7.13, RM6.33 and RM5.95.

Among the most active counters, Aimflex and JAKS both edged up half-a-sen to 21 sen and 18 sen, respectively, UUE Holdings increased two sen to 94.5 sen, Ramssol jumped seven sen to 75.5 sen, Kanger International was flat at 5.5 sen and Ekovest shed half-a-sen to 50 sen.   

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went up 9.99 points to 12,550.69, the FBMT 100 Index gained 7.11 points to 12,117.73,  the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved by 7.30 points to 12,922.50, the FBM 70 Index grew 11.32 points to 18,684.51, and the FBM ACE Index appreciated 32.42 points to 6,013.63. 

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index expanded 15.93 points to 17,816.04, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.15 of-a-point to 201.11, the Plantation Index earned 5.48 points to 6,949.19 but the Energy Index slipped 1.61 points to 982.91,

-- BERNAMA