Malaysia's Stock Market Struggles To Stay Positive In Early Session

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's stock market, Bursa Malaysia struggled to remain positive in the early session today as bargain-hunters and profit-takers battled it out. At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI)stood at 1,667.7, down 0.2 of-a-point, after opening 0.46 of-a-point better at 1,668.36 from yesterday's close of 1,667.9. Losers outpaced winners 77 to 70, with 155 counters unchanged, 1,423 untraded and 18 others suspended. Turnover stood at 148.55 million shares worth RM50.31 million. A dealer said some traders were bargain hunting following yesterday's losses, while some others still felt that the market was in an overbought condition since last week's three consecutive days of rally. Among the top gainers were Petronas Dagangan which was higher by 16 sen to RM23.96, HLT Global rising 11 sen to 56 sen and Magna Prima increasing eight sen to RM1.53. Top losers, on the other hand, were TNB, down 12 sen to RM13.80, Kawan Food declining nine sen to RM3.71 and Nestle sliding eight sen to RM76.40. Among heavyweights, Maybank, Public Bank and IHH were flat at RM8.26, RM6.37 and RM6.01 respectively, while Petronas Chemicals rose three sen to RM7.23. On actives, Sumatec was half-a-sen lower at nine sen, Hovid was down seven sen to 27.5 sen and Borneo Oil was unchanged at 16.5 sen. The FBM Emas Index declined 4.2 points to 11,654.34, the FBMT100 Index was 2.84 points weaker at 11,360.91 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index lost 7.71 points to 12,223.41. The FBM 70 decreased 9.04 points to 13,215.38 and the FBM Ace increased 0.68 of-a-point to 4,917.90. Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was unchanged at 7,892.11, the Finance Index gained 6.97 points to 14,629.91, and the Industrial Index inched up 5.19 points to 3,179.83. -- BERNAMA