Bursa Malaysia opens higher on stronger oil prices

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia started today's trading higher due to stronger oil prices, which triggered positive sentiment in the market.

At 9.03am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,628.3 points, up 1.02 points, from yesterday's close of 1,627.28.

The index opened 0.87 point higher at 1,628.15.

Market breadth was positive as gainers led losers 101 to 67, with 106 counters unchanged, 1,450 untraded and 24 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 64.39 million shares worth RM22.3 million.

A dealer noted that oil prices, with global benchmark Brent Crude Oil rising 4.17% to US$48.90 per barrel and WTI Crude Oil going up 3.79% to US$47.49, combined with the overnight gain by most global equity markets, had influenced the local bourse.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reported progress on the first day of a two-day meeting, which could potentially lead to an output freeze.

The meeting is expected to resume today to further discuss the oil prices situation.

Among heavyweights on Bursa, TNB added eight sen to RM14.18, Petronas Chemicals rose three sen to RM6.90, Kuala Lumpur Kepong gained 22 sen to RM23.96 and YTL inched up two sen to RM1.52.

Of the actives, Naim Indah ascended 1.5 sen to 9.5 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum went up by half-a-sen to 29 sen while Vivocom and Globaltec were flat at 17.5 sen and five sen respectively.

Among gainers, BIMB, RHB Bank, Thong Guan and Protasco were all up four sen to RM4.30, RM4.62, RM4.24 and RM1.27 respectively while Triplc strengthened eight sen to RM1.79.

The FBM Emas Index grew 3.23 points to 11,470.33, the FBMT100 Index was 2.57 points higher at 11,178.69, the FBM Emas Syariah Index expanded 0.14 point to 12,074.30 and the FBM Ace improved 12.02 points to 5,026.79.

However, the FBM 70 fell 13.18 points to 13,322.01.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 12.66 points lower at 7,748.05, the Finance Index declined 1.13 points to 14,193.31 and the Industrial Index dropped 5.09 points to 3,066.21.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.35 per gramme, up 27 sen from RM167.08 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama