Key heavyweights push share price higher

Buying interest for key heavyweights helped push share prices higher on Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday, despite the mixed overnight performance on Wall Street, dealers said.

After 16 minutes of trading, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 2.76 points to 1,640.1, after opening 1.85 points higher at 1,639.19.

Heavyweights, Maybank rose four sen to RM8.95, CIMB improved two sen to RM7.26 while Sime Darby, Axiata, Petronas Chemicals and Maxis gained one sen each to RM9.38, RM6.36, RM6.04 and RM6.37, respectively.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the key FBM KLCI could be striving to inch its way up today with the benchmark index attempting to pull away a bit more from the immediate support line of 1,635 points ahead.

On the external front, the research house said investors on Wall Street were awaiting the outcome of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting, expected to be known later tonight.

"Most likely, the policymakers would leave the federal funds rate at near zero level and reaffirm their accommodative monetary stance for an extended period," it said in a note.

HwangDBS said stocks that were expected to come under the spotlight today include Public Bank as the bank was scheduled to announce its fourth quarter financial results either today or tomorrow.

Separately, China Automobile will be making its debut listing this morning while SIG Gases' share may also attract added interest following its proposed acquisition of two Singapore-based companies for RM151 million.

On Bursa, the Finance Index surged 50.68 points to 14,921.55, the Plantation Index inched up 0.46 of a point to 8,048.59 while the Industrial Index shed 1.45 points to 2,771.63.

The FBM Emas Index earned 17.73 points to 11,157.99, the FBMT100 rose 18.07 points to 11,009.92, the FBM Mid 70 Index gained 17.84 points to 12,172.53 and the FBM Ace Index chalked up 19.58 points to 4,130.8.

Gainers led losers 106 to 61 with 128 counters unchanged, 1,366 untraded and 41 others were suspended.

Volume stood at 110.443 million shares worth RM73.403 million.

Among actives, China Automobile surged 26 sen to 94 sen while Oriented Media, Patimas and Luster Industries added half-a-sen each to 12 sen, 12 sen and 11 sen, respectively.