Bursa M'sia opens lower on mild selling

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened lower today on mild selling activity but the near-term outlook remained positive, dealers said.
At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.08 points lower at 1,719.19 from Thursday's close of 1,721.27.
The index opened 1.22 points easier at 1,720.05.
A dealer said the strengthening ringgit and crude oil prices should lift local sentiment in the near-term.
"Hence the local market should recover further on cautious bargain hunting and rotational play," he added.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 10.67 points easier at 12,421.8, FBMT 100 Index erased 10.659 points to 12,077.4 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index edged down 3.011 points to 12,889.02.
The FBM 70 climbed 0.931 of-a-point to 15,445.36 and the FBM Ace was 2.93 points better at 6,433.92.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index improved 13.84 points to 16,001.34, the Plantation Index gained 2.62 points to 7,949.21 and the Industrial Index was 7.72 points higher at 3,138.44.
On the broader market, gainers led losers by 147 to 120 while 154 counters remained unchanged with 1,465 untraded and 41 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 114.95 million shares worth RM64.67 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Sime Darby added one sen each to RM9.22 and RM8.94, respectively, and Petronas Chemicals perked five sen to RM7.35.
TNB lost eight sen to RM14.76 and Public Bank shed four sen to RM20.28.
Among actives, AirAsia X lost 2.5 sen to 35.5 sen and PUC slipped half-a-sen to 20.5 sen.
Malaysia Steel rose 20 sen to RM1.52 and Green Packet climbed half-a-sen to 44 sen.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM165.47/g, up 49 sen from RM164.98 at 5.00pm yesterday. – Bernama