Bursa Malaysia opens lower but recovers thereafter

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower but strengthened thereafter, taking the cue from the strong overnight performance by Wall Street.
At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.58 of-a-point higher at 1,759.67 from Thursday's close of 1,759.09.
The index opened 1.07 points easier at 1,758.02.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers by 203 to 93, with 236 counters unchanged, 1,319 untraded and 18 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 287.39 million shares worth RM100.04 million.
However, JF Apex Securities said the FBM KLCI could remain sideways above the support level of 1,750 points following the mixed performance in the United States and the Europe.
"The US markets rallied to extend their record highs led by technology and financial counters following optimism on tax reform while European stocks were flat as investors monitored the political situation in Spain," it said in a note today.
Of heavyweights, Maybank gained one sen to RM9.55, Public Bank increased two sen to RM20.58, Petronas Chemicals rose three sen to RM7.35, Sime Darby and CIMB were flat at RM9.04 and RM6.40, respectively, while TNB declined four sen to RM14.20 and Digi eased one sen to RM4.90.

Among active counters, M3 Technologies increased 1.5 sen to 11 sen, Hibiscus Petroleum perked ne sen to 67.5 sen, Hubline edged up half-a-sen to 11.5 sen and Sino Hua-An edged down half-a-sen to 23.5 sen.

The FBM Emas Index advanced 11.86 points to 12,568.03, FBMT 100 Index was 11.12 points higher at 12,220.39, FBM 70 increased 40.31 points to 15,105.92, FBM Emas Syariah Index rose 10.16 points to 12,814.34 and the FBM Ace expanded 55.09 points to 6,670.81.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index improved 25.67 points to 16,583.74, the Industrial Index inched up 0.82 of-a-point to 3,204.07 and the Plantation Index rose 6.8 points to 7,922.24.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM166.99 per gramme, down RM1.08 from RM168.07 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama