KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia got off to a cautious start on Tuesday with some tech stocks advancing while Serba Dinamik
slipped in active trade after the previous day’s rebound.
At 9.23am, the FBM KLCI was up just 0.28 of a point or 0.02% to 1, 582.74. Turnover was 916.46 million shares valued at RM436.10mil. There were 259 gainers, 241 losers and 376 counters unchanged.
Asian stocks pushed higher after their US peers closed at a record and a bond rally stalled ahead of a key Federal Reserve meeting, Bloomberg reported.
Japanese and South Korean shares saw modest gains, while Australian stocks climbed after a holiday. U.S. futures were little changed after gains in technology shares pushed the S&P 500 to an all-time high Monday.
Oil traded above US$71 a barrel as investors weighed the outlook for rising demand against extended anti-virus curbs in some economies, with officials tackling the challenge posed by more infectious coronavirus variants, Bloomberg reported.
West Texas Intermediate was 0.2% higher in early Asian trade after ending Monday little changed.
At Bursa on Monday, foreign funds turned net buyers at RM98.9mil but local funds were net sellers at RM97.7mil and retail investors RM1.1mil.
Among the tech-related stocks, Dufu rose 15 sen to RM4.54, Kobay 13 sen to RM2.29 while Vitrox, UWC and Pentamaster advanced six sen each to RM15.26, RM5.35 and RM4.65 but KESM fell 10 sen to RM11.50
Among the KLCI stocks, Petronas Chemicals advanced five sen to RM8.15 but Hong Leong Bank lost 18 sen to RM18.72 and Hartalega nine sen lower at RM8.34
Serba Dinamik shed some of the previous day’s hefty gains, slipping 2.5 sen to 72 sen with 163 million shares done.
Its board has agreed, in principle, to appoint Ernst & Young Advisory Services Sdn Bhd as the independent reviewer to assess veracity and accuracy of the matters highlighted by the external auditors, KPMG PLT.
Serba Dinamik had hit a new low of 54 sen Monday morning before jumping 23% or 14 sen to close at 74.5 sen.
