KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia and Asian markets were cautious ahead of the release of China’s economic data later Monday morning.
At 9.15am, the KLCI was up 0.17 point or just 0.01% to 1,669.62. Turnover was 230.16 million shares valued at RM78.36mil. There were 182 gainers, 125 losers and 234 counters unchanged.
Asian shares started the week on a softer note after posting their first weekly decline since early June, while the dollar was on the defensive ahead of key economic data from China, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was a shade lower at 524.9 points. It fell a little more than 1% last week, snapping five straight weeks of gains. Australian shares slipped 0.8% while South Korea's KOSPI inched 0.3% lower.
At Bursa, MPI rose 14 sen to RM9.38 with 200 shares done while Vitrox added five sen to RM7.03.
Carlsberg gained 14 sen to RM24.76, KSL 7.5 sen to 87.5 sen and Paramount seven sen higher at RM2.43.
Petronas Gas was up six sen to RM17.26, Eita and Apex Health five sen each to RM1.53 and RM2.16 and MBMR four sen higher at RM2.95.
United Plantation fell 18 sen to RM26.32 and PPB Group four sen lower at RM18.70 while among the banks, CIMB shed four sen to RM5.16 and AmBank three sen to RM4.218.
Among the glove makers, Hartalega
lost four sen to RM5.18 and Kossan three sen lower at RM3.97. CIMB Equities Research is upbeat on the gloves sector and expects their margins to widen as it keeps Kossan and Supermax as its top picks.
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