Bursa Malaysia opens higher
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, lifted by the overnight gains on Wall Street following President Donald Trump's pledge of bringing back millions of jobs to the country.
At 9.05am, the KLCI stood at 1,707.01, up 2.53 points, from Thursday's close of 1,704.48.
The index opened two points higher at 1,706.48 at 9 am.
Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 162 to 126 while 187 counters were unchanged, 1,245 untraded and 53 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 192.96 million shares worth RM77.26 million.
A dealer said Trump's promises buoyed the overnight US equities market to record highs, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 34.72 points to 20,810.32 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.99 points to 2,363.81.
"News reports also expect that a series of proposals, such as tax reforms and increased infrastructure spending, which Trump had promised during his presidential election campaign, will be introduced," he said.
On the local front, BAT emerged as the top gainer with its share up 40 sen at RM50, Petron Malaysia increased 37 sen to RM6.38 and IGB Corp garnered 31 sen to RM2.83.
Of heavyweights, Maybank rose seven sen to RM8.47, Tenaga garnered six sen to RM13.56, Petronas Chemicals improved eight sen to RM7.45 and Maxis added two sen to RM6.40.
Among actives, Frontken bagged two sen to 23.5 sen, JAG and Perak Transit perked one sen each to 15 sen and 17.5 sen, respectively, while Dagang Nexchange remained flat at 41 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 7.76 points better at 12,030.33, FBM Emas Syariah Index inched up 0.5-of-a-point to 12,472.40 and the FBMT100 Index advanced 8.62 points to 11,706.28.
The FBM Ace jumped 47.38 points to 5,355.18 but the FBM 70 fell 23.02 points to 13,914.34.
On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index improved 19.22 points to 15,067.59, the plantation Index climbed 6.19 points to 8,058.22 but Industrial Index was 6.75 points lower at 3,285.55.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM172.61 per gramme, up RM1.31 from RM171.30 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama