KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI turned lower at midday, giving up an early gain as selected banking and telco counters weighed.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI shed 1.61 points, or 0.1% to 1,677.19. The benchmark index opened 1.56 points higher at 1,680.36 this morning.
Gainers trailed losers by 586 to 455, while 434 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 2.1 billion shares valued at RM1.5bil.
Public Bank, which fell six sen to RM4.76, contributed to a 1.6976-point drop in the index. CelcomDigi lost seven sen to RM3.80, lowering the index by 1.1970 points, while Axiata Group's nine-sen decline to RM2.46 led to a 1.2046-point drop in the index.
Among the decliners on Bursa Malaysia, SAM Engineering tumbled 77 sen to RM4.58, Malaysia Airports eased 18 sen to RM10.32 and Chin Tek declined 12 sen to RM7.66.
Bursa Malaysia has suspended intraday short-selling (IDSS) for SAM Engineering due to a significant decline in its share prices.
Dutch Lady
rose 40 sen to RM30.52, Heineken added 32 sen to RM23.32, PBA gained 26 sen to RM2.81 and Malaysian Pacific Industries climbed 18 sen to RM29.78.
Rakuten Trade believes the uptrend to continue and expects the index to hover within the 1,680-1,690 range today with the crucial 1,700 as the ultimate immediate target.
“Recent earnings reports suggest that corporate Malaysia is in solid shape, particularly the banks, and expect the blue chips to remain as the bastion for the local bourse.
“Next, we hope that daily volume traded will improve to the six billion shares mark as the small caps are in need of additional injection of liquidity,” the research house said.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities believes that the broadly negative performance of US technology stocks, coupled with a stronger ringgit, may dampen demand for local technology companies.
“On the other hand, the elevated ringgit could boost trading activity in sectors such as consumer, banking, construction, and building materials. We also favour selected oil and gas players following their strong earnings results,” it said.
