KL shares mixed in quiet trade

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened
mixed in quiet trade today, with markets awaiting hints from US Federal Reserve
Chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, of a possible stimulus plan tomorrow.

At 9.20 am the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) fell 2.93 points
to 1,466.22 after opening at 1,470.37.
HwangDBS Vickers Research expects Asian investors to keep an eye
on the US stock futures performance for market direction today.

Wall Street extended its gains last night with its key equity indices rising
between 0.9 per cent and 1.3 per cent on better economic data.

However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average September futures contract lost
ground, partly due to news that the Chief Executive Officer of Apple, Steve

Jobs, had resigned.
The contract hovered at a 73-point discount to the spot rate.
"We expect the benchmark FBM KLCI to move sideways with a marginal positive
bias ahead, after declining by 13.2 points yesterday," HwangDBS Vickers Research
said in a research note.

Bursa Malaysia's Finance Index fell 123.48 points to 13,908.68, the
Plantation Index rose 20.27 points to 7,302.1 and the Industrial Index declined
6.55 points to 2,701.47.

The FBM Emas Index shed 12.94 points to 10,032.29, the FBM70 Index
was down 3.811 points to 10,950.28 and the FBM Ace lost 3.84 points to 3,760.17.

Advancers led decliners by 121 to 86 while 139 counters were unchanged and
1,158 others untraded.

A total of 68.45 million shares worth RM128.23 million were traded.

CIMB was the most active counter, declining 22 sen to RM7.38 sen,
while Plus was flat at RM4.36 and Sunway-Wa shed two sen to 58.5.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank declined three sen to RM8.71, Sime Darby
inched up one sen to RM8.71 and Petronas Chemicals was unchanged at RM6.30. --Bernama