Kuala Lumpur stock market’s benchmark index at midday fell marginally by 0.27 of a point to 1,599.82 points, from Thursday’s close of 1,600.09 points, slightly below the 1600-point threshold.
Throughout the half-day session, the key index moved within a range of 10.58 points, from 1,595.70 points to 1,606.28 points.
This morning, the key index opened marginally higher by 0.32 of a point. As at 9:11am, the index advanced 2.63 points to 1,602.72 points and continued to trade up by 3.17 points to 1,603.26 points as at 9:39am.
However, towards late morning, the index seemed to lose its upward momentum. As at 10:25am, the key index fell 0.63 of a point to 1,599.46 points and ended in the red at the conclusion of the half-day session.
YTL Corporation Bhd and YTL Power International Bhd were active counters at midday, having pushed up the key index during the opening session, rising 7% and 2%, respectively. At midday, YTL Corporation rose 10 sen to RM2.65 (+3.9%), recording a volume of 91,555,800 shares/units whereas YTL Power added 14 sen to RM4.22 (+3.4%) on a turnover of 53,543,000 shares/units.
In the past five days, YTL recorded a cumulative price surge amounting to 25.35% while YTL Power’s shares gained a cumulative 12.74%.
Owing to rallies of major utilities counters such as YTL Corp and YTL Power, the Utlities Index rose 1.44% to 1,773.53 points at midday, followed by the Construction Index which added 1.27% to 306.03 points, and the Property Index which surged 0.45% to 1089.30 points.
The health care and plantation sectors declined at midday as indicated by the Health Care Index which gave up 1.13% to 2,357.88 points, and the Plantation Index which decreased 0.85% to 7,521.82 points.
The FBM suite of palm oil-related indices declined accordingly. US dollar-denominated index (FBMAPUSD) lost 1.10% to 10,919.68 points, the ringgit-denominated index (FBMAPMYR) shed 0.94% to 17,119.77 points and the non-capped index (FBMPALMOIL-NC) slumped 0.90% to 12,349.21 points.
United Plantations Bhd was a midday decliner which lost 64 sen to RM32.50 on a volume of 143,600 shares/units.
Malayan Cement Bhd was among midday gainers, rising 15 sen to RM4.99 on a volume of 524,800 shares/units.
At midday, decliners led gainers slightly by 475 to 416, while 494 counters were unchanged.
The half-day turnover amounted to 2.00 billion (1,998,133,200) shares/units valued at RM1.38 billion (RM1,378,903,835).
The last Initial Public Offerings (IPO) of 2024 all listed within this week, including Topvision Eye Specialist Bhd (Dec 16, ACE Healthecare, RM0.33), Vanzo Holdings Bhd (Dec 17, ACE Consumer, RM0.15), Carlo Rino Group Bhd (Dec 18, ACE Consumer, RM0.27) and Winstar Capital Bhd (Dec 19, ACE Industrial, RM0.35)
At midday, Topvision’s shares traded at RM0.305, Vanzo at RM0.17, Carlo Rino at RM0.205, and Winstar at RM0.495.
