KL shares rangebound mid-morning

Range-bound trade persisted on Bursa Malaysia at mid-morning today, with
most investors sidelined ahead of the general elections while regional
markets stayed buoyant on US recovery optimism.

At 11.01am, the
FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,710.39 points, up 5.56
points from yesterday's close of 1,706.34 points.

The key index had opened 0.63 point higher before retreating to as low as 1,703.34 and rebounded to as high as 1,711.41.

The
Finance Index rose 24.95 points to 15,953.83 and the Plantation Index
strengthened 20.02 points to 8,134.04 while the Industrial Index eased
0.68 point to 2,831.93.





The FBM Emas Index firmed 27.521 points to 11,675.91 and the FBMT100 Index went up 28.11 points to 11,514.92.

The FBM Mid 70 Index gained 19.83 points to 12,884.76 and the FBM Ace Index added 3.15 points to 3,973.17.

Turnover amounted to 179.58 million shares worth RM337.69 million.

Gainers led losers 218 to 196 with 241 counters unchanged, 954 counters untraded and 37 others suspended.

Among
actives, Tanco added one sen to 17 sen, Astro Malaysia gained seven sen
to RM2.94 and MNC Wireless climbed half-a-sen to 24.5 sen.

MISC lost six sen to RM4.24 and Astral Supreme slipped half-a-sen to 21.5 sen.

Of
the heavyweights, Maybank, Axiata and Sime Darby added one sen each to
RM9.56, RM6.81 and RM9.41 respectively, CIMB rose two sen to RM7.74 and
Petronas Chemicals earned three sen to RM6.50.-- Bernama