Bursa Malaysia opens higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, spurred by persistent buying in selected heavyweights, said a dealer.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.25 of-a-point higher at 1,792.6 from Wednesday's 1,792.35 after opening 0.6 point better at 1,792.95.
The market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 134 to 96 while 228 counters were unchanged, 1,343 untraded and 31 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 106.25 million shares worth RM55.64 million.
The FBMT100 Index improved 2.04 points to 12,424.97, FBM Emas Index surged 2.53 points to 12,786.11 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index depreciated 5.02 points to 12,978.38.
The FBM 70 increased 3.72 points to 15,268.21 and the FBM Ace went up 36.26 points to 6,406.4.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index advanced 38.18 points to 16,917.53, Industrial Index gained 0.6 of-a-point to 3,289.26 and the Plantation Index was 7.16 points higher to 7,938.26.
Finance-related stocks propelled this morning's upside momentum. CIMB added six sen to RM6.79 and Hong Leong Bank rose 20 sen to RM15.60.
Public Bank, RHB and Hong Leong Financial Group were flat at RM20.40, RM5.10 and RM17.60, respectively.
Among other heavyweights, TNB added two sen to RM14.40, Maxis rose one sen to RM6.09, while Maybank declined two sen to RM9.59.
The actively-traded stocks this morning included JAG Bhd, Eden Inc and Nexgram which were flat at 13.5 sen, 25 sen and five sen, respectively, while Leweko was up two sen to 36.5 sen and Techfast rose one sen to 73.5 sen.

The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.48 per gramme, down 51 sen from RM167.99 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama