Bursa Malaysia opens higher on improved risk appetite

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened marginally higher today on improved risk appetite, amid positive sentiment globally, dealers said.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.51 of-a-point better at 1,717.75 from Friday's close of 1,717.23.
The index opened 1.14 points higher at 1,718.37.
A dealer said sentiment in the global stock markets was relatively positive following the bullish closing of Wall Street last Friday, which was buoyed by bright business outlook and strong corporate earnings.
Nestle was the biggest gainer on Bursa Malaysia this morning, up 64 sen to RM92.60, followed by Malaysia Airports Holdings and Petronas Dagangan which rose 10 sen each to RM8.34 and RM23.70 respectively.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 6.11 points higher at 12,399.35, FBMT 100 Index gained 5.86 points to 12,052.75, FBM Emas Syariah Index added 2.78 points to 12,842.04, FBM 70 advanced 15.82 points to 15,360.33 and the FBM Ace perked 10.01 points to 6,412.63.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index rose 23.97 points to 15,962.63 and the Industrial Index up 2.08 points to 3,126.17. The Plantation Index, however, fell 7.81 points to 7,904.18.
On the broader market, gainers led losers by 130 to 103 while 183 counters remained unchanged with 1,457 untraded and 38 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 122.81 million shares worth RM41.65 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose five sen to RM9.20, and CIMB added two sen to RM6.00.
Public Bank eased two sen to RM20.30 and Petronas Chemicals fell four sen to RM7.31. Tenaga and Sime Darby were flat at RM14.82 and RM8.94 respectively.
Among actives, UMW Oil & Gas gained 1.5 sen to 31.5 sen and DGB Asia inched up half-a-sen to 15 sen.
Supermax decreased 17 sen to RM1.92.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM164.93 per gramme, down 30sen from RM165.23 at 5.00pm last Friday. — Bernama