KL shares mixed at mid-morning

SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia were mixed at mid-morning today as some investors cashed out on earlier gains, dealers said.

At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) edged up 1.95 points to 1,293.37 after opening 3.51 points higher at 1,294.93.

Dealers said persistent buying in selected blue-chips helped the key index stay above the 1,290.0 level.

"Overall, the market sentiment remains healthy, in line with improved sentiment in the global market," a dealer said.



On the performance of the other indices, the Finance Index rose 42.45 points to 11,214.50 and the Industrial Index added 4.53 points to 2,696.40 while the Plantation Index declined 15.21 points to 6,539.33.

The FBM Emas Index increased 3.85 points to 8,690.17 and the FBM Top 100 Index rose 5.81 points to 8,463.36, while the FBMACE Index fell 22.34 points to 4,422.21 and the FBM70 Index declined 21.51 points to 8,502.78.

Decliners outnumbered advancers by 268 to 217 while 229 stocks were unchanged and 591 others untraded.

After two hours of trading, volume stood at 370.439 million shares worth RM344.432 million.

Among the actives, KNM Group and Asian Pac Holdings inched up half sen each to 80.5 sen and 10.5 sen respectively.

Hovid rose 1.5 sen to 28.5 sen, Integrated Rubber Corporation gained four sen to 93.5 and OilCorp added half sen to 12 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Sime Darby shed two sen to RM9.07 while Maybank rose two sen to RM6.90 and CIMB Group gained 26 sen to RM13.40. - Bernama