KUALA LUMPUR • Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session mixed on continued buying in selected heavyweight stocks, led by the financial services, transportation and logistics counters.
At 12.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 1.36 points to 1,469.80 from yesterday’s close of 1,468.44.
The benchmark index opened 4.92 points higher at 1,473.36.
Nonetheless, the overall market breadth was negative with decliners surpassing advancers 344 to 315, while 394 counters were unchanged, 1,298 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.23 billion units worth RM664.34 million.
ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said Asian equities were choppy today following a light session on Wall Street after the previous session’s bloodbath caused by a higher than expected US consumer price index reading.
He said traders are now eyeing next week’s Federal Open Market Committee to see if there would be more aggressive rate hikes.
Alves said some desks are now expecting a 100 basis points (bps) rate hike, and talks of a 5% Federal Reserve (Fed) Funds terminal rate are gaining some ground.
“A more aggressive Fed decision and a potentially higher ‘dot plots’ could weigh heavily on risk assets in the coming days due to recession fears.
“Higher rates on credit would also cause a sell-off on credit, especially corporate credit, high yield bonds and emerging market debt,” he said.
Back home, Bursa heavyweights Malayan Banking Bhd and Public Bank Bhd gained three sen each to RM8.88 and RM4.47 respectively, while Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd reduced six sen to RM8.64, IHH Healthcare Bhd declined one sen to RM6.19 and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd was flat at RM5.39.
Of the actives, Velesto Energy Bhd, SNS Network Technology Bhd and Aimflex Bhd added 1.5 sen each to 12 sen, 31.5 sen and 16.5 sen respectively, Cypark Resources Bhd grew 2.5 sen to 44.5 sen, while Metronic Global Bhd was flat at 1.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index expanded 8.49 points to 10,483.69 and the FBM T100 Index ticked up 5.18 points to 10,222.18, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 7.86 points to 10,584.93, the FBM 70 reduced 10.65 points to 12,697.52 and the FBM ACE was 17.88 points lower at 4,827.02.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index lost 31.55 points to 6,913.49 and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.71 of-a-point to 181.04, while the Energy Index was 16.8 points stronger at 735.74 and the Financial Services Index went up by 33.38 points to 16,517.43. — Bernama / pic TMR File