KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session higher today, lifted by continuous buying activities in heavyweights and bettering regional peers’ downward stock performances.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.12 points or 0.66 per cent better at 1,710.98, after moving between 1,705.3 and 1,716.75 throughout the morning session.
A dealer told Bernama the Bursa’s stronger performance was against most of its regional peers on the back of indications of a slowdown in the world’s second biggest economy, China, which displayed a higher-than-anticipated decline in imports.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 173.43 points or 0.94 per cent to 18,265.24 and Singapore’s Straits Times contracted 23.07 points or 0.76 per cent to 3,009.04 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 163.04 or 0.72 per cent to 22,567.89.
RHB Research said in a technical note the current local market sentiment is encouraging.
“We reiterate our long call as the buying interest is still encouraging.
“The immediate support stays at 1,689.50 point, the next support is seen at the 1,646-point critical threshold, and our immediate resistance is set at 1,745 points,” the research house said.
Gainers thumped losers 375 to 359, with 285 counters unchanged, 771 untraded and 16 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.45 billion shares valued at RM1.13 billion.
Among heavyweights, IHH Healthcare rose 10 sen to RM6.31, Petronas Chemicals was up two sen to RM6.55 and Maybank improved eight sen RM8.59, while Petronas Gas was flat at RM22.80.
Digi depreciated one sen to RM5.74 and Axiata lost eight sen to RM6.30. Of the actives, Frontken gained 1.5 sen to 20.5 sen, AirAsia went up three sen to RM1.45, Xox Bhd was one sen higher at 16 sen and Iris Corp garnered half-a-sen to 25 sen.
On the scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index expanded 25.93 points to 11,792.31 and the FBMT100 Index was 28.22 points higher at 11,500.29, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index depreciated 8.11 points to 12,537.22.
The FBM 70 surged 107.7 points to 12,818.41 and the FBM Ace gained 42.72 points to 5,941.39.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index chalked up 95.9 points to 14,593.53, the Plantation Index improved 12.51 points to 7,503.14 and the Industrial Index perked 5.53 points to 3,328.63. – BERNAMA