Bursa Malaysia rebounds to open slightly higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia rebounded to open slightly higher this morning from yesterday's losses as bargain hunting emerged to boost demand.
At 9.07am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,777.40, up 1.83 points, from Wednesday's close of 1,775.57.
The key index opened 1.32 points higher at 1,776.89. A dealer said the local market would see investors accumulate selected stocks while adopting a defensive stance this week on the back of mixed sentiment in the global market.
"Stocks in demand included healthcare, consumers and selected blue-chips, which were now cheaper to buy given the recent sell-off," he said.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd, in a note, said after the weaker trend over the past three trading days, buying interest was expected to emerge amid bargain hunting activities but may be capped by concern over oil prices.
Meanwhile, it said, technology stocks might trend higher amid higher Nasdaq movement.
The market breadth was positive as gainers outpaced losers by 110 to 81 with 158 counters unchanged, 1,440 untraded while 34 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 70.71 million shares worth RM35.19 million.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index gained 9.76 points to 12,625.52, FBM 70 rose 2.20 points to 14,906.80, FBM Ace chalked up 43.87 points to 6,179.51 and the FBMT100 Index added 9.99 points to 12,273.11.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index rose 7.73 points to 12,837.60.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index fell 0.71 of-a-point to 3,270.97 and the Finance Index inched down 3.41 points to 16,820.31.
The Plantation Index gained 5.22 points to 7,932.94.
Among heavyweights, Maybank slipped two sen to RM9.57, Tenaga shed rose eight sen to RM14.26, Genting advanced seven sen to RM9.65, Genting Malaysia increased five sen to RM5.55 and CIMB was one sen better at RM6.66.
Public Bank, Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM20.38, RM9.59 and RM7.15, respectively.
Of the actives, KNM lost half-a-sen to 26 sen, SILK Holding gained two sen to 50 sen, Comfort Gloves added 3.5 sen to 82.5 sen and Panpages was flat at 31.5 sen.
DRB-Hicom Bhd has requested for a suspension of trading today, starting from 9am, pending the release of a material announcement.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.06 per gramme, up 77 sen from RM166.29 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama