Bursa Malaysia opens higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended Friday's gain to start the week higher today, in line with most of its regional peers on buying support in selected heavyweights, dealers said.
At 9.15am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.85 of a point better at 1,780.75 against Friday's close of 1,779.90.
The benchmark index opened 0.37 of-a-point higher at 1,780.27.
On the broader market, gainers led losers by 236 to 119 with 221 counters unchanged, 1,258 untraded and 23 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 291.29 million shares worth RM105.36 million.
Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) said the stocks could see further trading opportunities following the stronger ringgit momentum recently, coupled with higher trading volumes on Bursa Malaysia, especially in the small-capitalised stocks and lower-liners after positive inflows of foreign funds last week.
“In the US, We maintain a sideway view on Wall Street with the weaker US dollar trend, coupled with the ongoing political tensions, which investors could stay cautious in the stock markets if North Korea news continues to surface in the media,” it said in a research note today.
On heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.60, Sime Darby and CIMB rose three sen each to RM9.10 and RM6.69, respectively, while TNB slipped two sen to RM14.56.
Among active counters, Sino Hua-An and MLABS earned half-a-sen each to 24 sen and 14.5 sen, respectively, Perak Transit added one sen to 40 sen while Iris Corp eased half-a-sen to 18 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 5.85 points better at 12,695.13, FBM 70 fell 2.08 points to 15,260.84, FBM Emas Syariah Index added 6.25 points to 12,892.39, FBMT 100 Index increased 4.02 points to 12,361.54 and the FBM Ace rose 4.59 points to 6,654.17.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index erased 4.38 points to 3,204.34, Plantation Index advanced 6.88 points to 7,897.09 and the Finance Index gained 13.63 points to 16,740.16.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM174.69 per gramme, down RM1.65 from RM176.34 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama