Bursa Malaysia opens flat, trades sideways thereafter

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened almost flat today and traded sideways thereafter on lack of fresh leads, dealers said.
At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.89 of-a-point firmer at 1,724.43 from Wednesday's close of 1,723.54.
The index opened 0.12 of-a-point easier at 1,723.42. A dealer said the market was expected to trade lower today based on the momentum of yesterday's trading activities.
"The analysis of overall market action on Wednesday revealed that buying power was weaker than selling pressure. As such, FBM KLCI would likely trade below the 1,721.36 level today," he said.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 6.42 points firmer at 12,433.32, FBMT 100 Index advanced 6.489 points to 12,088.56 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index inched up 0.68 point to 12,884.71.
The FBM 70 climbed 9.14 points to 15,365.01 and the FBM Ace was 11.69 points better at 6,438.87.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index improved 13.04 points to 16,006.42 and the Plantation Index gained 0.21 of-a-point to 7,956.17. The Industrial Index was 2.78 points lower at 3,136.24.
On the broader market, gainers led losers by 192 to 105 while 202 counters remained unchanged with 1,387 untraded and 33 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 243.77 million shares worth RM78.11 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby added two sen each to RM9.23 adn RM9.01 respectively while Public Bank was flat at RM20.36.
TNB lost 10 sen to RM14.76 and Petronas Chemicals shed four sen to RM7.26.
Among actives, Green Packet and Orion IXL added one sen each to 44 sen and 13 sen respectively, and PUC and M3 Technology earned half-a-sen each to 22 sen and 13.5 sen respectively.
Hubline was flat at 12 sen.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM164.62 per gramme, up 15 sen from RM164.47 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama
-- bernama