Bursa Malaysia opens higher but turns choppy

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened choppy despite the bullish sentiment in global equities including Wall Street.
At 9.17am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.52 of-a-point easier at 1,767.63 from Monday's close of 1,768.15.
The index opened 0.31 of-a-point better at 1,768.46 at 9 am.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 215 to 134, while 288 counters remained unchanged with 1,113 untraded and 26 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 346.55 million shares worth RM263.63 million.
In a note today, Maybank Investment Bank Research said the FBM KLCI was expected to be positive as it had enough buffers to absorb any selling pressure, given overall trend which was still encouraging.
"We expect the index to retest its previous high of 1,768.15," said the research firm.
Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank said stocks on the local bourse should remain resilient despite the uncertain Bandar Malaysia deal.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank eased two sen each to RMRM9.37 and RM19.98, respectively, while Tenaga, Sime Darby and PChem were flat at RM13.92, RM9.32 and RM7.15, respectively.
Of actives, IWCity shed 49 sen to RM1.67 while Glotec, Netx and Tiger Synergy were flat at 7.5 sen, 8.5 sen and 7.5 sen, respectively.
The FBM Emas Index fell 8.95 points to 12,643.84, the FBMT100 Index was 6.22 points easier at 12,274.99 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index inched down 13.83 points to 12,981.96.
The FBM 70 shed 17.42 points to 15,170.55 and the FBM Ace dipped 9.19 points at 6,316.17.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 23.74 points firmer at 8,094.99 and the Industrial Index rose 0.28 of-a-point to 3,245.04 but the Finance Index lost 30.39 points to 16,302.82.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM165.68 per gramme, down 76 sen from RM166.44 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama