Bursa Malaysia almost flat in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was almost flat in early trading today in line with the weaker Wall Street performance overnight.

At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.69 points easier at 1,628.61 from Wednesday's close of 1,630.30.

The index opened 0.45 point lower at 1,629.85.

On the broader market, losers edged gainers 79 to 75, with 141 counters unchanged, 1,462 untraded and 50 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 117.991 million shares worth RM38.374 million.

Kenanga Research said with year-end dressing activities kicking in, the upside is likely to be limited to 1,630 or 1,640 at most this week given that there are only two trading sessions left for 2016 before the long weekend break.

"Failure to build on the bull momentum yesterday would likely see a consolidation play, where key supports are envisaged at the 1,620/1,610 levels," it said in a note today.

Among heavyweights, Public Bank rose four sen to RM19.72, TNB and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM13.60 and RM6.87 respectively while Maybank declined four sen to RM7.91, Sime Darby eased two sen to RM8.06 and IHH Healthcare fell three sen to RM6.30.

Of the actives, Borneo Oil and Perisai Petroleum both edged up half-a-sen to 18 sen and 9.5 sen respectively, Kuantan Flour Mills gained three sen to 21 sen and Sumatec Resources was flat at 6.5 sen.

Foundpac Group, which made its debut on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia today, increased 8.5 sen to 62.5 sen from its opening price of 61 sen.

Among losers, Nestle reduced eight sen to RM78.42, Genting and KPJ Healthcare depreciated six sen each to RM7.91 and RM4.10 respectively and Axiata lost three sen to RM4.59.

The FBM Emas Index went down 8.08 points to 11,389.38, the FBMT100 Index was 8.90 points lower at 11,109.51 and the FBM Ace weakened 17.11 points to 4,768.80.

The FBM Emas Syariah Index eased 8.72 points to 11,940.88 and the FBM 70 inched down 0.33 point to 12,980.11.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index declined 4.67 points to 7,667.95, the Finance Index decreased 8.95 points to 14,236.94 and the Industrial Index fell 1.75 points to 3,113.85.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM159.90 per gramme, up 90 sen from RM159.00 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama