Shanghai: Bursa Malaysia remained in positive territory at midday, supported by buying in heavyweights, led by Press Metal, Telekom Malaysia, and Petronas Chemicals. These three counters contributed 9.89 points to the composite index. At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 5.54 points to 1,725.88 from last Friday's close of 1,720.34.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, the benchmark index opened 4.13 points higher at 1,724.47 and traded between 1,721.94 and 1,731.79 during the morning session. Market breadth turned negative, with losers outpacing gainers by 492 to 406, while 516 counters remained unchanged, 1,334 were untraded, and 67 were suspended. Turnover stood at 1.71 billion units, valued at RM1.22 billion.
In specific stock movements, Press Metal rose 39 sen to RM8.81, Telekom Malaysia was 47 sen better at RM7.57, and Petronas Chemicals added eight sen to RM5.58. RHB Investment Bank Bhd maintained a 'buy' call on Telekom with a target price of RM9.30, viewing the revision in Telekom's dividend payout ratio positively, offering yield-seekers dividend certainty with potential for special dividends. Telekom remains a preferred telco exposure on structural growth prospects, capital management upside, and improving return on invested capital.
Among other heavyweights, Maybank fell six sen to RM11.10, Public Bank slipped two sen to RM4.79, Tenaga Nasional added four sen to RM14.70, CIMB Group erased nine sen to RM7.71, while IHH Healthcare eased seven sen to RM8.75. On the most active list, Luster Industries was traded flat at four sen, VS Industry was one sen easier at 21.5 sen, Inari Amertron was 15 sen better at RM1.97, Zetrix AI added 1.5 sen to 87.5 sen, and AirAsia X was unchanged at RM1.25.
Top gainers included Nestle, which added 54 sen to RM99.84, FandN was 52 sen higher at RM30.82, and Unisem rose 25 sen to RM3.33. Top losers included United Plantations, which fell 84 sen to RM31.48, Petronas Dagangan was 32 sen lower at RM20.10, Hong Leong Bank and Allianz erased 24 sen each at RM22.54 and RM20.82, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 48.20 points to 12,763.92, the FBMT 100 Index improved 52.28 points to 12,601.58, the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 100.04 points to 12,686.65, the FBM 70 Index jumped 126.28 points to 18,198.71, but the FBM ACE Index fell 15.11 points to 4,637.21. By sector, the Financial Services Index slashed 101.96 points to 20,120.85, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 3.32 points to 195.68, the Energy Index gained 0.28 of a point to 830.59, and the Plantation Index added 3.93 points to 8,849.19.