Bursa Malaysia opens higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher today as demand recovered amid positive market sentiment, dealers said.
At 9.03am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.04 points higher at 1,778.95 against Monday's close of 1,777.91.
The benchmark index opened 0.64 of a point better at 1,778.55.
Market breadth was positive with gainers leading decliners 100 to 56 with 171 counters unchanged, 1,506 untraded and 22 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 70.41 million shares worth RM35.23 million.
A dealer said the sentiment was fuelled by the favourable announcement of Malaysia's foreign exchange reserves, which rose to US$99.4 billion (RM427 billion) as at July 31, 2017 compared with US$99.1 billion (RM425.4 billion) registered as at July 14, 2017.
The strong overnight Wall Street would also help boost sentiment today, he said.
MaybankIB Research said FBMKLCI was expected to trade higher today and range between 1,775 and 1,790 in the near term with the downside support levels at between 1,748 and 1,729.
"Sentiment, however, would remain choppy as investors may turn to risk-off mode ahead of the release of US inflation data this Friday," it said in a note today.
Of the heavyweights, Public Bank gained two sen to RM20.68, CIMB rose four sen to MR6.72, while Sime Darby, and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM9.39 and RM7.03 respectively.
Maybank slipped one sen to RM9.69 and Tenaga eased two sen to RM14.16.
Among active counters, Frontken inched up half-a-sen to 33.5 sen, AirAsia X was flat at 38 sen, but Jag shed half-a-sen 14.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index rose 7.67 points to 12,637.21, FBMT 100 Index bagged 6.04 points to 12,288.13, FBM 70 was 2.88 points better at 14,940.99 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index added 2.89 points to 12,756.62.
However, the FBM Ace slipped 3.63 points to 6,522.49.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index improved 9.31 points to 16,848.88, the Plantation Index perked 6.65 points to 7,879.33 and the Industrial Index gained 2.31 points to 3,280.28.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.71 per gramme, up 12 sen from RM167.59 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama