Bursa Malaysia opens higher on bargain hunting

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia rebounded to open higher today as bargain-hunting activities emerged following yesterday's losses.
At 9.06am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,751.17, up 6.22 points, from Monday's close of 1,744.95.
Earlier, the index opened 5.65 points higher at 1,750.60.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 223 to 66 with 207 counters unchanged, 1,225 untraded and 25 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 226.49 million shares worth RM58.87 million.
In a note, Hong Leong Investment Bank said it expected more bargain hunting activities to emerge as stocks may be seen as short-term oversold.
"However, near term gains is likely to be limited as Brexit will begin on March 29, which may cause some jitters in markets, worldwide," said the research firm.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose two sen to RM8.99, TNB eased four sen to RM13.74, Public Bank added eight sen to RM20 but Sime Darby fell two sen to RM9.43.
Of actively-traded stocks, Olympia Industries added 1.5 sen at 15.5 sen, AE Multi rose 2.5 sen to 19.5 sen and Scomi Group improved three sen to 21 sen.
The FBM Emas Index increased 43.42 points to 12,394.66, FBMT 100 Index was 42.23 points higher at 12,051.02 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index gained 51.38 points to 12,830.33.
The FBM 70 was 48.73 points better at 14,483.11 and the FBM Ace perked 15.22 points to 5,702.93.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index gained 24.98 points to 8,216.58, the Finance Index increased 34.91 points to 15,688.32 and the Industrial Index added 10.89 points to 3,292.77.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM172.34 per gramme, down seven sen from RM172.41 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama