BURSA MALAYSIA ALMOST FLAT IN EARLY TRADE

By Anas Abu Hassan

KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened almost flat in early trade today amid mixed reactions from Wall Street’s performance overnight as investors took a breather ahead of corporate earnings results.

At 9.12 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) inched up 0.84 of-a-point or 0.05 per cent to 1,584.35 from Wednesday’s close of 1,583.51.

The benchmark index opened 0.76 of-a-point easier at 1,582.75.

Meanwhile, market breadth was positive with 249 gainers outnumbering 147 losers, 322 counters were unchanged, 1,676 untraded and seven suspended.

Turnover stood at 295.83 million shares valued at RM122.6 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street closed mixed as US market players shift their focus on earnings results primarily from the big technology companies that helped support the Nasdaq.

On the home front, he said the FBM KLCI might see some continuing bargain-hunting activities, especially by foreign funds as illustrated from the net foreign inflows of almost RM935 million over the past two days.

“As such, we believe the index may re-test the 1,600 mark soon and expect it to hover within the 1,580-1,590 range today,” he told Bernama.

Among heavyweights, Maybank eased four sen to RM10.16, Public Bank and IHH Healthcare were both unchanged at RM4.53 and RM7.06, CIMB fell one sen to RM7.23 and Tenaga Nasional gained eight sen to RM14.38.

In active trade, Sapura Energy was flat at 4.5 sen, Harvest Miracle added one sen to 18.5 sen, SPP Tech gained 1.5 sen to 25 sen, Aemulus rose 3.5 sen to 30 sen and MAG was half a sen better at 19.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index bagged 14.82 points to 11,851.15, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 15.58 points to 11,602.69, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went up 34.18 points to 11,805.23.

The FBM 70 Index improved by 60.28 points to 16,933.19 and the FBM ACE Index expanded 27.75 points to 4,818.75.

Across sectors, the Financial Services Index slipped 12.89 points to 18,559.90, the Industrial Products and Services Index was up 0.49 of-a-point to 161.38, the Energy Index shed 2.26 points to 741.10 and the Plantation Index advanced 9.51 points to 7,366.91.

-- BERNAMA