KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 ― Bursa Malaysia stayed in the positive territory at midmorning, lifted by persistent buying in selected heavyweights, led by financial services stocks.
At 11.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 5.17 points to 1,459.61 from 1,454.44 at yesterday's close, after opening 1.79 points firmer at 1,456.23.
However, the broader market was negative with decliners outpacing advancers 429 to 377, with 388 counters unchanged, 1,184 untraded and 70 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 1.74 billion units worth RM1.08 billion.
Among the heavyweights, Public Bank added nine sen to RM4.23, Maybank and CIMB increased four sen each to RM9.13 and RM5.67, respectively, Nestle gained RM1.90 to RM131.40 and Hong Leong Bank edged up 18 sen to RM20.06.
Meanwhile, Axiata eased five sen to RM2.53 and Petronas Chemicals declined four sen to RM7.15.
Of the actives, Capital A expanded 1.5 sen to 97 sen, while Iskandar Waterfront City slid half-a-sen to 75.5 sen, Ekovest narrowed two sen to 48 sen, YTL Corporation shed one sen to RM1.63 and RGB International was flat at 30.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBMT 100 Index was 33.64 points firmer at 10,456.17, the FBM 70 Index edged up 31.69 points to 14,297.80 and the FBM Emas Index was 32.47 points stronger at 10,780.28.
Meanwhile, the FBM Emas Shariah Index slid 6.19 points to 10,947.77 and the FBM ACE Index fell 13.41 points to 5,243.06.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index jumped 142 points to 16,470.73, the Plantation Index went up 6.37 points to 6,947.87 and the Energy Index perked 1.91 points to 834.22, while the Industrial Products and Services Index was slightly lower by 0.61 of-a-point to 172.17. ― Bernama