KL SHARES END MORNING TRADE BROADLY LOWER, FBM KLCI UP ON SELECTIVE BUYING

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 (Bernama) -- Share prices on Bursa Malaysia were broadly lower at the end of morning trade today but buying in heavyweights such as newly listed Maxis, KL Kepong and Tanjong, helped the market's barometer to remain in the positive territory, said a dealer.

Maxis, which opened at a premium of 46 sen at RM5.46 over its institutional offer price of RM5, topped both the active and gainers list.

At lunch break, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) perked 0.35 of a point to 1,275.45. It had opened 0.11 of a point lower at 1,274.99.

"The market is struggling to keep afloat as wider market sentiment is sluggish, especially after Wall Street's dismal overnight performance, the dealer explained.

MIMB Investment Bank in its morning note said that the local market is likely to head north today, courtesy of the listing of the much anticipated bluechip stock, Maxis.

Given that Maxis will be included in the index component at the same time and add its 2-3 percent market capitalisation, the new listing will almost likely add to the FBM KLCI's liquidity today, it added.

MIMB also highlighted that the local market index upside potential may however, be capped by the performance of Wall Street.

The FBM Emas Index shed 6.05 points to 8,515.31, the FBM Top 100 fell 2.37 points to 8,317.24 and the FBM 70 eased 20.72 point to 8,241.53.

The FBM ACE dropped 54.8 points to 4,413.78.

The Industrial Index shed 4.39 points to 2,691.39 and the Plantation Index added 19.06 points to 6,224.07 while the Finance Index shrank 19.09 points to 11,020.7.

Decliners outnumbered advancers by 375 to 191 while 240 counters were unchanged and 468 others untraded.

A total of 849.379 million shares worth RM1.749 billion were transacted.

For the actives, Maxis rose 40 sen to RM5.40, followed by Scomi Group-Loan Rights which edged down 1.5 sen to one sen and MLabs which fell 3.5 sen to 30 sen.

For the heavyweights, Sime Darby slipped one sen to RM8.99, Maybank improved one sen to RM6.95, CIMB Group declined four sen to RM13.00, while Tenaga Nasional and Public Bank remained unchanged at RM8.48 and RM10.98, respectively.

-- BERNAMA

SM AS