Bursa Malaysia opens higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher this morning on strong buying support from investors whose confidence were lifted after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) upgraded Malaysia's economic growth rate for 2017 to 4.8 per cent from 4.5 per cent yesterday.
At 9.06am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,764.42, up 2.43 points, from 1,761.99 on Monday.
The index opened 4.01 points stronger at 1,766.0 at 9.00am.
Gainers edged losers 100 to 73 with 192 counters unchanged, 1,474 untraded and 25 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 99.87 million shares worth RM40.99 million.
Yesterday, IMF Economic Counsellor and Director of Research Department Dr Maurice Obstfeld said the growth rate was revised due to Malaysia's favourable economic data and management of its monetary policy.
A dealer said the upgraded growth outlook for 2017 had boosted market players' confidence.
Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank said shares could trend fairly positive as the key index managed to surpass the 1,760 points level yesterday after a 10-day consolidation phase.
"Also, selected technology stocks within the ACE Market may still outperform the market amid the better sentiment from the overnight Nasdaq Composite Index," it said.
However, the research house expected trading to remain cautious ahead of the two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting, which would begin later today, and with the on-going corporate reporting season.
Heavyweights, Tenaga and Sime Darby gained two sen each to RM14.20 and RM9.57, respectively, CIMB added four sen to RM6.38 while Maybank and Public Bank remained unchanged at RM9.63 and RM20.38, respectively.
Of actives, Sterling Progress advanced 1.5 sen to 17 sen, Mpay inched up half-a-sen to 27 sen, Dagang Nexchange added one sen to 59.5 sen and its warrant perked added half-a-sen to 30.5 sen while Global Formation was flat at 6.5 sen.
Among gainers, Hong Leong Bank was 18 sen better at RM15.98, Cahya Mata improved 14 sen to RM3.90, HengYuan rose eight sen to RM5.98, Petronas Chemicals increased seven sen to RM7.07 and Kerjaya gained six sen to RM3.67.
The FBM Emas Index was 12.58 points better at 12,568.65, the FBMT100 Index rose 12.34 points to 12,209.97 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index improved 12.84 points to 12,744.26.
The FBM Ace jumped 32.75 points to 6,731.90 but the FBM 70 fell 1.75 points to 14,929.87.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index firmed 32.65 points to 16,736.31 and the Industrial Index was 1.95 points better at 3,280.21 but the Plantation Index lost 4.16 points to 7,849.59.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.04 per gramme, down four sen from RM167.08 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama