Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng told Bernama that banks would get a boost from the decision by the government to allow trading of smaller share lots and fractional shares.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced at the unveiling of his Ekonomi Madani initiative yesterday that the move was to revive Malaysia’s capital market.
“We reckon that the index may possibly stage another interesting performance today and expect it to hover within the 1,445 to 1,460 range,” Thong said.
He said traders were also likely to remain optimistic about the US gross domestic product, which rose by 2.4% in the second quarter of 2023, its fourth consecutive quarter of growth.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) began the day at 1,448.21 points, down 3.06 points from yesterday’s close of 1,451.27.
It slid further to 1,447.10 points just 10 minutes into the day’s trading.
Decliners outnumbered advancers 214 to 138 on the broader market, while 248 counters were unchanged, 1,705 were not traded and 71 others were suspended.
The turnover stood at 286.57 million units worth RM128.95 million.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank added a sen to RM9.00, while Public Bank and CIMB slid four sen each to RM4.07 and RM5.46 respectively, Tenaga Nasional declined six sen to RM9.54 sen and Petronas Chemicals erased five sen to RM6.76.
Of the actives, Capital A bagged four sen to RM9.55, Tanco Holdings perked up half-a-sen to 56.5 sen, AirAsia X widened 18 sen to RM2.51 and GDB Holdings expanded 1.5 sen to 22.5 sen while Hong Seng Consolidated shed half-a-sen to eight sen.
On the index board, the FBM 70 Index perked 19.69 points to 13,971.41, while the FBM Emas Index slid 19.51 points to 10,641.87, the FBMT 100 Index was 19.05 points lower at 10,330.10, the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 3.44 points to 10,926.02, and the FBM ACE Index trimmed 32.98 points to 5,298.56.
Sector-wise, the plantation index increased by 0.87 of-a-point to 7,206.42, while the financial services index slipped 56.88 points to 16,108.00, the industrial products and services index narrowed 0.44 of-a-point to 166.66, and the energy index eased 0.18 of-a-point to 836.51.