KUALA LUMPUR: Shares on Bursa Malaysia were marginally higher at mid-afternoon on the back of the country’s better industrial production data released earlier today, dealers said.
At 3 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 0.01 of a point to 1,876.62, after opening 2.86 points higher at 1,879.47.
Market breadth was positive as gainers outpaced losers 366 to 302, while 345 counters were unchanged, 612 untraded and 16 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 813.81 million shares worth RM877.8 million.
Malaysia’s Industrial Production Index increased by 4.2 per cent in April 2014 as compared with the same month last year.
The increase was supported by growth across the board and would lead to a healthy second quarter gross domestic product, an analyst said.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index fell 0.92 points to 17,193.06, the Industrial Index rose 2.63 points to 3,192, while the Plantation Index advanced 11.14 points to 9,253.19.
The FBM Emas Index was 0.52 of a point lower at 12,969.16, the FBMT100 Index dropped 1.46 points to 12,614.1, the FBM Ace rose 7.24 points to 6,629.45, while the FBM 70 lost 7.699 points to 14,054.44.
Gainers were led by BAT which rose 56 sen to RM63.56, Cahaya Mata Sarawak added 21 sen to RM10.08 and Hong Leong Financial rose 18 sen to RM16.00.
Among actives, both MAS and Olympia Industries improved one sen each to 19 sen, respectively, while ETI Tech slipped half a sen to 7.5 sen.
For the heavyweights, Maybank fell one sen to RM9.85, Public Bank shed four sen to RM20.78 but Tenaga rose two sen to RM11.78. – Bernama
