KL shares marginally higher in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR: The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) opened marginally higher this morning, bolstered by buying interest in oil and gas, shipping and energy bluechips, dealers said.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,743.64, up 1.36 points, from Friday's close of 1,742.28. The key index opened 0.86 of-a-point better at 1,743.14.
Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing decliners 174 to 82 while 219 counters were unchanged, 1,359 untraded and 20 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 267.51 million shares worth RM107.50 million.
Leading movers in the FBM KLCI component stocks were Petronas Dagangan which surged RM1.20 to RM22.80, MISC garnered eight sen to RM7.38, Tenaga added four sen to RM14.94 and Petronas Chemicals rose two sen to RM7.46.
AllianceDBS Research Sdn Bhd, in a note, said following the weak close on Friday, the weekly FBMKLCI was likely to move lower with immediate support noted at the 1,739 points level while the immediate hurdle was projected at the 1,752 points level.
The FBM 70 rose 43.60 points to 15,592.47 and the FBM Ace advanced 7.62 points to 6,836.34.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index bagged 1.73 points to 16,231.45, the Plantation Index trimmed 13.27 points to 8,002.74 while the Industrial Index gained 3.79 points to 3,205.54.
Among actives, Sumatec was flat at 5.5 sen, Hibiscus rose 2.5 sen to 81.5 sen, PUC slipped half-a-sen to 21.5 sen and MUI perked half-a-sen to 27 sen.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM166.45 per gramme, down 81 sen from RM167.26 at 5.00pm last Friday. — Bernama