BURSA MALAYSIA STAYS HIGHER AT MIDDAY

By Siti Noor Afera Abu

KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia remained higher at midday, driven by persistent buying interest in most mid- and small-cap stocks.

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.86 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 1,594.95 from Friday's close of 1,590.09.

The benchmark index, which opened 0.17 of a point firmer at 1,590.26, moved between 1,587.03 and 1,596.92 throughout the morning session.

On the broader market, gainers surpassed decliners 483 to 414, while 463 counters were unchanged, 1,014 untraded, and five others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 1.93 billion units worth RM1.20 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president, equity research, Thong Pak Leng said the domestic market’s undertone is expected to improve following a rather muted inflation data from the United States.

“Thus we expect the index to hover within the 1,590-1,600 range today,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Thong said the weakening of the Japanese yen against the greenback to a 38-year low could prompt possible fresh realignments of portfolios out of the Japanese stock market and into other Asian markets.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.96, Tenaga Nasional added four sen to RM13.82, Public Bank gained one sen to RM4.03 and CIMB was two sen higher at RM6.82, while IHH Healthcare fell one sen to RM6.29.

As for the actives, Ingenieur Gudang inched up half-a-sen to 5.5 sen, Nova increased one sen to 22.5 sen, EA Technique and Hiap Teck improved 1.5 sen each to 35.5 sen and 44 sen, respectively, while MYEG slid 2.5 sen to 99.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 33.63 points to 12,250.03, the FBMT 100 Index rose 31.83 points to 11,829.89, the FBM Emas Shariah Index garnered 31.77 points to 12,584.74, the FBM 70 Index climbed 32.62 points to 17,874.52, and the FBM ACE Index edged up 59.26 points to 5,832.54.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index gained 6.67 points to 962.09, the Industrial Products and Services Index grew by 0.59 of-a-point to 196.44, the Plantation Index advanced 42.19 points to 7,024.91, and the Financial Services Index bagged 17.69 points to 17,472.43.

-- BERNAMA