Bursa Malaysia opens higher in early session

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher for the second consecutive day as market participants are more willing to bargain hunt for cheaper quality stocks, a dealer said.
The bullish performance this morning was supported by greater buying interest, which comes in after these market participants spent time to analyse market information, AllianceDBS Research said in a note.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,648.61, up 1.14 points, after opening 0.52 of-a-point higher at 1,647.99 from yesterday's close of 1,647.47.
The research firm noted that the market should be gearing towards the 1,652-level while support was seen at 1,642.
"A fall below the 1,642-level would put pressure on the market to fall to the subsequent support at 1,630," it said.
Meanwhile, the firmer oil prices due to fall in US crude inventories, as well as unplanned disruption in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil output reduced the group's supply.
Among OPEC members, Nigeria's daily output fell by 200,000 barrels to 1.45 million in December, Saudi Arabia's production slipped by 50,000 barrels a day while Venezuela's output declined by 40,000 barrels.
US West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were trading at US$53.26 per barrel, unchanged from their settlement on Wednesday, while Brent crude oil futures were yet to trade, according to Reuters.
On the broader market, gainers led losers at 139 to 44, with 167 counters unchanged, 1,377 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 90.75 million shares worth RM31.48 million.
Among heavyweights, MISC went up by eight sen to RM7.35, CIMB and and PPBank rose two sen each to RM4.62 and RM19.84, respectively, IHH, TM and Genting, each rose one sen to RM6.40, RM6.00 and RM7.95, respectively, while PChem added three sen to RM7.14.
Among other gainers, Nestle advanced 72 sen to RM78, PPB added 14 sen to RM16.06, KLK gained 12 sen to RM24.14, and Panamy increased 10 sen to RM30.30.
The FBM Emas Index went up 12.70 points to 11,547.99, the FBMT100 Index was 10.59 points better at 11,258.17, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 15.72 points to 12,134.46 and the FBM Ace put on 4.44 points to 4,871.87.
The FBM 70 improved 23.21 points to 13,200.65.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index improved 16.59 points to 7,824.04, the Finance Index advanced 16.33 points to 14,422.43 and the Industrial Index inched up 6.85 points to 3,175.91.
Gold futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives opened untraded today.
At 9.33am, January 2017, February 2017, March 2017 and April 2017 remained pegged at Wednesday's closing of RM168.05, RM168.65, RM169.45 and RM170 a gramme, respectively.
Turnover was nil while open interest amounted to 209 contracts.
At 9.30am, the price of physical gold was 77 sen higher at RM163.47 a gramme from RM162.70 a gramme at the close yesterday. — Bernama