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KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia ended the morning trading session mixed due to the lack of fresh catalysts.
At 12.30pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 1.04 points to 1,529.29 from yesterday’s closing of 1,530.33.
The index, which opened 0.89 of-a-point easier at 1,529.44, moved between 1,525.45 and 1,532.82 throughout the session.
Meanwhile, on the broader market, gainers surpassed decliners 409 to 372, while 400 counters were unchanged, 1,069 untraded and 27 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 2.06 billion units valued at RM1.09 billion.
Among the heavyweights, TNB advanced three sen to RM9.10, Press Metal surged 21 sen to RM6.09, IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.56, Maybank eased four sen to RM8.29, Public Bank shed two sen to RM4.16, Petronas Chemicals fell three sen to RM8.95 and CIMB slid nine sen to RM5.24.
Of the actives, Coraza soared 39.5 sen to 67.5 sen, G3 added one sen to nine sen, Dagang NeXchange bagged six sen to 97 sen, Artroniq was four sen higher at 61.5 sen, MMAG Holdings was flat at eight sen and Ageson declined one sen to 2.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index expanded 5.88 points to 10,980.50, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 37.44 points to 11,706.53, the FBMT 100 Index gained 3.41 points to 10,689.09, the FBM ACE went up 81.94 points to 6,173.50, and the FBM 70 strengthened 51.04 points to 13,539.83.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index contracted 78.57 points to 15,766.04, the Industrial Products and Services Index recovered 1.56 points to 200.61, while the Plantation Index firmed 21.83 points to 6,692.75.
Meanwhile, the ringgit rebounded to open higher versus the US dollar today, as the greenback retreated amid risk-on mode in the equity market, an analyst said.
At 9.05am, the local currency was trading at 4.1855/1880 against the US dollar compared with 4.1925/1950 at yesterday’s close.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said that the 10-year US Treasury yielded lower at 1.83 per cent last night, while major US equities benchmark index fell.
It seems at the moment, the US dollar/ringgit is hovering slightly below its immediate resistant level of RM4.1958.
Afzanizam said market participants are expected to pay close attention to Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting deliberation today.
“Most economists expect no change in the present overnight policy rate level of 1.75%,” he said.
He said while that could be already in the price, the markets would want to see the committee’s assessment on the prevailing economic condition, in particular the inflation, and how it might affect the monetary policy going forward.
“As such, expect the local note to be in a tight range today,” he added.
At the opening bell, the local note was traded mixed against a basket of other major currencies.
The ringgit ended slightly higher versus the Singapore dollar at 3.1075/1096 from yesterday’s close 3.1086/1095 and increased vis-à-vis the euro to 4.7510/7538 from 4.7553/7575.
However, the local note was almost flat against the British pound at 5.7019/7053 from 5.7018/7036 and depreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.6622/6647 from 3.6600/6625. – Bernama, January 20, 2022