Bursa Malaysia Surrender Morning Gains; FBM KLCI Ends Flat

Stocks in Bursa Malaysia pared early gains to close 0.08% higher at 1184.88 points on Friday, raising the year's gains so far to 35.14%. The benchmark FBM KLCI opened the day on a positive note, surging as high as 1191.66 points in morning session on continued buying interest in key heavyweights and selected second liners.
However, it lost momentum as the day progressed, and briefly went into negative territory in afternoon trading as weaknesses in Asian markets following the overnight losses on Wall Street had affected investor sentiment.
Overall, today’s gains were limited by losses in plantation and property stocks.
The Finance Index eased 0.20% to 9689.03 points, the Plantation Index lost 0.38% to 5751.48 points and the Properties Index dropped 0.29% to 781.10 points. The market traded within a range of 9.25 points between an intra-day high of 1191.66 and a low of 1182.41 during the session.

Actively traded stocks include AXIATA-CC, KNM, AXIATA, SAAG, JOTECH, COMMERZ, TM-CI, SIME, RAMUNIA and ASIAEP.

Trading volume declined slightly to 1.01 bil shares worth RM1.66 bil as compared to Thursday's 1.03 bil shares worth RM1.54 bil.

Leading Movers were AXIATA (+13 sen to RM3.06), YTL (+20 sen to RM7.24), PETRONAS GAS (+17 sen to RM9.92), COMMERZ (+2 sen to RM10.66) and MMC (+5 sen to RM2.71).

Lagging Movers were GENTING (-10 sen to RM6.30), AMMB HOLDINGS (-12 sen to RM4.15), SIME DARBY (-5 sen to RM8.26), IOI CORPORATION (-2 sen to RM5.13) and GENTING MALAYSIA (-2 sen to RM2.89).

Market breadth was negative with 389 losers as compared to 277 gainers. On a weekly basis, the benchmark FBM KLCI rose 0.85 percent on sustained buying momentum.