KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended the morning session on a positive note at mid-day, led by buying support for selected heavyweights.
At 12.30 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 1.6 points to 1,674.63. The index opened unchanged at 1,673.03. Turnover stood at 985.22 million shares worth RM539.9mil.
Losers thumped gainers 365 to 292 while 373 counters were unchanged.
Overnight, the US markets declined led by energy counters following lower oil prices. Similarly, European stocks also dropped after falling oil price and disappointing quarterly earnings.
“Following the negative performance in the US and Europe, the FBM KLCI could pull back from recent gains and consolidate below the resistance of 1,685 points,” JF Apex said in a report.
The research house expects Daibochi Plastic and Packaging Industry Bhd, Yong Tai Bhd
, Cuscapi Bhd, Ho Wah Genting Bhd and SCGM Bhd to be among the stocks to watch on Thursday after their corporate news.
At Bursa Malaysia, Aeon Credit added 40 sen to RM14.30, MNRB rose 23 sen to RM3.08 and RCE Capital gained 22 sen to RM1.
Among the banks, Public Bank rose 10 sen to RM19.66, Maybank added two sen to RM7.97, CIMB Group up 7 sen to RM4.56 while Hong Leong Bank was unchanged at RM13.20.
The decliners included F&N, BAT, and Panasonic Manufacturing.
Brent crude was last traded at US$43.89 per barrel while US crude traded at US$41.52 per barrel.
Spot gold lost 0.27% to US$1,342.95 per troy ounce.
Among the key regional markets:
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is down 0.18% to 16,735.12;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is up 0.53% to 22,610.56;
Shanghai Composite Index down 0.02% to 3,018.20;
Taiwan’s Taiex shed 0.75% to 9,131.83;
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.26% to 2,039.31 and;
Singapore’s Straits Times Index is down 0.25% to 2,868.45 points.
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