Bursa Malaysia Trends Higher In Early Trade

By Anas Abu Hassan

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened marginally higher today, tracking the positive movement of Wall Street's performance overnight, an analyst said.

At 9.07 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.56 points to 1,598.76 compared with Monday's close of 1,596.20.

The benchmark index opened marginally higher by 0.44 of-a-point at 1,596.64.  

The broader market was positive, with gainers outpacing decliners 149 to 131, while 292 counters remained unchanged, 1,851 were untraded, and nine suspended.

Turnover stood at 125.63 million units valued at RM70.83 million.  

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said US equities closed higher despite a weak opening as traders were confident of a Santa rally amid a shortened trading week.

Domestically, Thong observed that the FBM KLCI made an attempt to breach the 1,600 level yesterday but was unsuccessful, likely due to foreign selling activity in the local market.

“However, we are encouraged by the fact that the selling pressure appears to be more subdued as evidenced by the low daily trading volume of just 2.4 billion shares.

“For today, we anticipate a quiet trading session, with the index likely to range between 1,595 and 1,605,” he told Bernama.

Among heavyweights, Maybank, Tenaga Nasional and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM10.08, RM14 and RM7.03 respectively, while Public Bank gained two sen to RM4.54 and CIMB added three sen to RM7.98.

For active stocks, Winstar Capital put on 2.5 sen to 63 sen, Datasonic increased half a sen to 42.5 sen, Yew Lee was half sen down at 51.5 sen while Aizo was unchanged at 12.5 sen, while Capital A eased one sen to 97 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index earned 13.75 points to 12,262.73, the FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 3.64 points to 12,216.76, and the FBMT 100 Index added 11.15 points to 11,945.86.

The FBM ACE Index edged up 4.26 points to 5,251.53 but the FBM 70 Index shed 12.56 points to 18,369.13.

By sector, the Financial Services Index gained 24.19 points to 18,882.48, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.15 of a point to 170.44, the Energy Index increased 0.78 of a point to 804.00 and the Plantation Index picked up 1.18 points to 7,488.99.  

-- BERNAMA