Bursa Malaysia opens slightly higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher today in line with the performance on Wall Street overnight.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.48 points better at 1,756.26, from Monday's close of 1,754.78 and 1.73 points higher from this morning's opening level of 1,756.51.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 135 to 101, with 188 counters unchanged, 1,412 untraded and 18 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 171.795 million shares worth RM66.58 million.
JF Apex Securities said the FBM KLCI could stage a rebound after testing the support level of 1,750 points yesterday, following a bullish performance in the US and Europe.
"The US markets rallied to record highs overnight, lifted by gains in financial and healthcare counters, while European stocks advanced except for Spain due to political instability following Catalonia's independence referendum," it said in a note today.
Of heavyweights, TNB and Petronas Chemicals rose two sen each to RM14.34 and RM7.32, respectively, Sime Darby increased four sen to RM9.04, Maybank was flat at RM9.55 and Public Bank fell two sen to RM20.56.
Among active counters, Hubline added one sen to 11.5 sen, MLabs and MMAG Holdings perked half-a-sen each to 11 sen and 24 sen, respectively, Vizione Holdings was flat at 15 sen and EA Holdings shed half-a-sen to four sen.
The FBM Emas Index increased 10.85 points to 12,524.45, the FBMT 100 Index was 10.93 points higher at 12,185.88, the FBM 70 advanced 15.94 points to 15,022.68, the FBM Emas Syariah Index appreciated 13.61 points to 12,777.19 and the FBM Ace gained 5.01 points to 6,562.17.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index expanded 13.29 points to 16,498.63, the Industrial Index was 3.97 points better at 3,197.93 and the Plantation Index improved 41.26 points to 7,906.58.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.41 per gramme, down 36 sen from RM167.77 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama