Bursa Malaysia opens higher in early session

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia started the morning session on a positive tone, reversing yesterday's loss as oil prices edged up, a dealer said.

Traders welcomed the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC's decision to cut oil production, however, they were also monitoring the materialisation of the exercise.

At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,637.21, up 1.68 points.

The index opened 3.45 points better at 1,638.98 from Tuesday's close of 1,635.53.

Among oil and gas heavyweight counters, Petronas Gas improved 10 sen to RM21.48, Petronas Chemicals added two sen to RM7.01, Petronas Dagangan increased 12 sen to RM23.92, while Hong Leong Bank went up 14 sen to RM13.44 and Maxis and IOI Corporation both rose four sen to RM6.04 and RM4.47, respectively.

On the broader market, gainers led losers at 105 to 79, with 156 counters unchanged, 1,387 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 88.95 million shares worth RM22.7 million.

Despite the positive run this morning, Kenanga Research said with the tapering of momentum indicators in sight, the FBM KLCI looked likely to take further breather from its recent rally with support envisaged at 1,630 or 1,620.
"The underlying index failed to build on the bull momentum from last week's window-dressing, as it retraced from the immediate resistance level of 1,640.

Among other gainers, KLK added 16 sen to RM24.16, PPB Group improved 12 sen to RM16.06, MNRB edged up six sen to RM2.08, while Kossan Rubber and MAHB both rose five sen each to RM6.59 and RM6.15, respectively.
The FBM Emas Index went up 8.22 points to 11,461.94, the FBMT100 Index was 8.48 points better at 11,179.40, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 9.14 points to 12,030.76 and the FBM Ace put on 48.08 points to 4,816.78.

However, the FBM 70 fell 1.42 points to 13,104.61.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index improved 28.85 points to 7,819.43, the Finance Index advanced 20.09 points to 14,326.51 and the Industrial Index inched up 1.61 points to 3,131.10.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM161.73 per gramme, up 61 sen from RM161.12 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama