Bursa Malaysia opens higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, lifted by positive news mirroring the appointment of new Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Governor, Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, effective July 1.
At 9.07am today, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 8.15 points higher at 1,702.30 from last Friday's close of 1,6,94.15.
The index opened 12.87 points firmer at 1,7,07.02 at 9am.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 158 to 83, while 170 counters were unchanged, 1,515 untraded and 32 others suspended.
Volume stood at 122.16 million units valued at RM68.0 million.
Public Investment Bank Bhd in its note today supported Nor Shamsiah's appointment, given that she had been a long-serving employee of the central bank, while also being one of the deputy governors during Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz's tenure.
Zeti was the seventh BNM Governor.
On Friday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that Nor Shamsiah had been appointed the new BNM Governor for a term of five years, until to June 30, 2023.
Public Investment Bank also anticipated the local bourse to kick-start the week firmly after hefty gains for energy stocks provided support to the US and European equity markets at the end of last week, as oil prices rallied on news that Saudi Arabia had struck a deal that would see the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its allies increase oil production.
Wall Street ended mixed last Friday with the on-going trade war between US and China still brewing uncertainties among investors.
For heavyweights on Bursa, banking stocks gained with Maybank up three sen to RM9.22, as Public Bank rose eight sen to RM23.00 and CIMB edged up four sen to RM5.85.
Tenaga increased six sen to RM13.86 and Petronas Chemicals improved four sen to RM8.44.
Among actives, Sapura Energy gained two sen to 66.5 sen, Nova MSC was flat at 13.5 sen and T7 Global added 11.5 to 53.5 sen.
Top gainers, KLK jumped 46 sen to RM24.10, Petronas Dagangan rose 28 sen to RM24.56 and PPB recovered 20 sen to RM19.56.
The FBM Emas Index increased 49.39 points to 12,022.85, the FBMT100 Index gained 52.15 points to 11,810.79, the FBM Emas Syariah Index was up 48.53 points to 12,090.42 and the FBM70 added 48.23 points to 14,610.03.
However, the FBM Ace Index declined 2.48 points to 5,264.98.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index climbed 16.51 points to 3,135.48, the Plantation Index firmed 20.43 points to 7,530.19 and the Finance Index advanced 64.18 points to 16,919.14.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM158.57 per gramme, up 68 sen from RM157.89 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama