Bursa Malaysia Extends Gains At Midday On Buying In Financial, Telecom Stocks
KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia continued its upward trend at midday, driven by strong buying interest in major financial and telecommunications stocks.
At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) climbed 5.51 points to 1,662.34 from Wednesday’s close of 1,656.83.
The benchmark index opened 1.99 points higher at 1,658.82 and fluctuated between 1,657.77 and 1,666.26 during the morning trading session.
Market breadth was negative with decliners outpacing gainers 574 to 353, while 452 counters were unchanged, 1,262 untraded, and 15 suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.59 billion shares, valued at RM908.54 million.
The local bourse bucked the mixed performance of its regional peers, as investors in the region pared exposure to artificial intelligence and semiconductor heavyweight stocks following their outsized gains amid portfolio rebalancing, profit-taking and concentration risk management.
Regionally, Shanghai’s SSE Composite Index rose 0.90 per cent to 4,075.31, Japan’s Nikkei 225 decreased 1.17 per cent to 69,272.11, South Korea’s KOSPI Composite Index slipped 4.89 per cent to 7,897.29, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index went up 0.38 per cent to 5,181.27.
In a note today, Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd said the FBM KLCI is expected to remain choppy and headline-driven, after a cautious debut in July, with sentiment dictated by developments in US-Iran diplomacy and hawkish United States Federal Reserve expectations weighing on the ringgit and trade flows.
Among the heavyweight stocks, Maybank rose eight sen to RM10.74, Public Bank improved five sen to RM4.80, Tenaga Nasional gained four sen to RM14.24, CIMB improved three sen to RM7.45, while IHH fell seven sen to RM8.23.
Active counters Zetrix AI, Pentech, and Velocity inched up one sen each to 77.5 sen, 30.5 sen and seven sen, respectively, while Tanco edged down half a sen to 17 sen and GIIB dropped one sen to 50 sen.
On the gainers’ list, Nestle rose 38 sen to RM92.14, and Telekom Malaysia put on 17 sen to RM7.50, while United Plantations and F&N soared 22 sen each to RM33.20 and RM28.16, respectively. PPB improved 16 sen to RM9.32.
Top losers included Malaysian Pacific Industries, which slipped by 70 sen to RM48.30; Vitrox, which fell by 13 sen to RM7.76; Chin Teck, which dropped by 16 sen to RM10.90; Malayan Cement, which lost 12 sen to RM6.21; and Pentamaster, which erased 10 sen to RM4.84.
On the broader market, the FBM Emas Index rose 11.61 points to 12,360.73, while the FBM Top 100 Index added 15.06 points to 12,190.48 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index erased 6.21 points to 12,234.51.
The FBM Mid 70 Index fell 85.52 points to 17,830.84, while the FBM ACE Index shed 14.98 points to 4,853.76.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index surged 107.98 points to 19,593.75, the Plantation Index added 42.76 points to 8,885.80, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.53 of-a-point to 179.86, while the Energy Index trimmed 7.90 points to 748.65.
-- BERNAMA
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