SDS Group in focus, blue chips slip

KUALA LUMPUR: SDS Group was in focus on Monday on its trading debut on the ACE Market while blue chips wavered in early trade in the absence of strong catalysts and ahead of the Budget 2020 proposals due this Friday.

At 9.19am, the FBM KLCI was down 0.57 of a point or 0.04% to 1,557.10. Turnover was 273.82 million shares valued at RM108.20mil. There were 197 gainers, 119 losers and 222 counters unchanged.

Asian shares edged higher after data showed the US unemployment rate dropped to the lowest in almost 50 years, easing concerns of a slowdown in the world’s largest economy, Reuters reported.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.25%. Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose 0.29%, while Australian shares were up 0.48%

US Treasury yields inched higher as Friday’s data on the U.S. jobs market suggests the Federal Reserve may not need to cut interest rates further.

At Bursa Malaysia, foreign funds were net sellers last Friday at RM189.70mil while local institutions were net buyers at RM164.3mil and retail investors at RM25.40mil.

Home grown bakery products manufacturer and distributor SDS Group opened at 26 sen, or three sen above its offer price of 23 sen.

At 9.19am, it was trading at 24.5 sen, or 1.5 sen above its offer price. It was the most active with 57.38 million shares done.

Hartalega-C32 wall warrants fell 30 sen to nine sen while SP Setia-C20 lost 29.5 sen to 4.5 sen while Pentamaster-CH was down 13.5 sen to 28.5 sen.

Petronas Dagangan fell 28 sen to RM23.20 with 100 shares done, Heineken 10 sen to RM23.90, MAHB nine sen to RM8.61, Petronas Chemicals seven sen to RM7.24 and Hartalega five sen to RM5.20.

Insurer Allianz rose 40 sen to RM14.20, KL Kepong 16 sen to RM21.40, Magani-Tech 13 sen to RN6.98 and Guan Chong eight sen to RM4.61.

MPI added 34 sen to RM9.70, Unisem and Kesm 14 sen each to RM2.37 and RM7.52.

Source: TheStar