Bursa Malaysia turned higher at mid- morning Wednesday, led by bargain hunting in selected bashed down blue-chips despite a gloomy regional market, a dealer said.
At 11.04 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) edged up 1.36 points to 1,667.06.
However, overall sentiment still remained jittery after an immense sell-down on Monday (Jan 4), said the dealer.
The local bourse ended on a positive note yesterday, closing at 1,660.50, after hovering between a high of 1,673.50 and a low of 1,639.50.
RHB Retail Research believed that the near-term market correction will likely continue, as the index has failed to recover more than 50 per cent on Jan 4.
The research house said yesterday’s positive performance merely illustrated a technical rebound after the previous day’s losses. Overall, it said, the short-term market trend remains bearish.
Maybank Kim Eng said traders will trade the KLCI today with a ‘Sell on Rallies’ strategy and expect the weaker support areas to be at 1,632.0 and 1,657.5.
“Investors will experience heavy liquidation at the 1,660.5 and 1,695.0 resistance levels,” it added.
Regionally, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 104.94 points to 21,083.78, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index slid 222.23 points to 18,151.77 and Singapore’s Straits Times Index trimmed 24.08 points to 2,810.15.
On the scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index increased 22.80 points to 11,670.48, the FBMT100 gained 19.63 points to 11,338.70 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 23.07 points for 12,690.
The FBM 70 was 60.05 points higher at 13,130.32 and the FBM Ace appreciated 54.41 points to 6,371.18
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index reduced 9.75 points to 3,211.74, the Plantation Index went up 51.37 points to 7,702.10 and the Finance Index added 16.61 points to 13,983.73.
On the broader market gainers led losers by 441 to 237, with 317 counters unchanged, 728 untraded and 12 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 899.78 million shares worth RM599.36 million.
Among top gainers, Panasonic Manufacturing accumulated 50 sen to RM24.50, Genting Plantations fetched 24 sen to RM10.86, Karex increased 21 sen to RM4.47 and KLK rose 20 sen to RM23.20.
Of the heavyweights, Public Bank edged up four sen to RM18.36, Petronas Chemicals gained seven sen to RM7.53, but TNB eased two sen to RM13.18 and Maybank was flat at RM8.33.(Bernama)
Link: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v8/newsindex.php?id=1204585
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