KL shares crawl into positive territory at mid-morning

Shares on Bursa Malaysia crawled into positive territory at mid-morning. ― Picture by Hari Anggara

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia crawled into positive territory at mid-morning on bargain-hunting in selected heavyweights led by Petronas Chemicals, Public Bank, MISC and Maybank.

Altogether, they contributed 5.90 points to the composite index.

On the broader market, advancers led decliners 437 to 402, while 427 counters were unchanged, 901 untraded and 21 others suspended.

At 11.02am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) inched up 0.92 point to 1,499.72 from 1,498.80 at yesterday’s close.

The market barometer opened 0.96 point better at 1,499.76.

Total volume stood at 2.05 billion units worth RM1.21 billion.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank rose five sen to RM7.11, Hartalega increased 12 sen to RM17.92, Top Glove eased three sen to RM8.87, while Tenaga was six sen lower at RM10.02.

Of the actives, Iris slipped 1.5 sen to 29 sen, Diversified Gateway added half-a-sen to 19 sen, ES Ceramics improved three sen to 76 sen, while Mlabs was flat at 2.5 sen.

Top losers included Nestle, which gave up RM3 to RM141.50, Petronas Dagangan declined 62 sen to RM17.50 and Genting Plantation was 28 sen weaker at RM10.

Technology-linked counters emerged as the top gainers with JF Technology increased 42 sen to RM4.99, MI Technovation up 33 sen to RM4.75 and Vitrox Corp was 30 sen higher at RM14.24.

Among major indices, the technology index registered 1.09 points, or 1.79 per cent, to 61.98 and it is the only index that recorded more than one per cent contribution to the indices.

This came after Chinese tech giant Huawei Tech Co was set to fulfill its 5G orders for next year, with JF Technology, which is in the business of high-performance test socket manufacturing, became associated with Huawei in July last year.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 7.89 points to 10,894.00, the FBMT 100 Index gained 9.29 points to 10,686.81 but the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 19.07 points to 13,058.81.

The FBM 70 improved 23.15 points to 14,406.29 and the FBM ACE advanced 61.10 points to 11,012.30.

The Financial Services Index rose 73.40 points to 12,377.45, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.69 point better at 145.50, but the Plantation Index fell 40.52 points to 6,879.93. — Bernama

Source: Malay Mail