KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia snapped its six-day losing streak to open higher today, amid a recovery in global market sentiment, following fresh developments in US-China trade relations, dealers said.
At 9.03 am, the key FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rebounded 4.65 points to 1,657.28 from yesterday’s close of 1,652.63.
The index opened 4.46 points better at 1,657.09.
Market breadth was positive as gainers led decliners 114 to 40, with 99 counters unchanged, 1,652 untraded and 38 others suspended.
Volume stood at 77.75 million units valued at RM25.17 million
A dealer said sentiment was fuelled by reports that China HAD agreed to cut tariffs on US autos to 15 per cent from 40 per cent.
Back home, among the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.34, Petronas Chemicals bagged seven sen to RM9.25, CIMB gained three sen to RM5.54, and Public Bank rose 24 sen to RM24.74.
Tenaga, however, slipped 10 sen to RM13.44.
Among actives, Vortex inched up half-a-sen to 9.5 sen, while Hubline, Bumi Armada and PUC were all flat at four sen, 16 sen and 11.5 sen respectively.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 21.97 points higher at 11,421.51, the FBM 70 perked 31.06 points to 13,248.75 and the FBM Ace Index edged up 17.38 points to 4,563.6.
The FBM Emas Index rose 32.35 points to 11,417.02 and the FBMT 100 Index increased 30.53 points to 11,303.83.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index bagged 34.91 points at 6,667.43 and the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.51 of-a-point to 167.94, but the Financial Services Index improved 58.22 points to 17,196.79.
Gold futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were unchanged this morning on a lack of demand.
At 9.38 am, December 2018, January 2019, February 2019 and March 2019 were unchanged at RM167, RM167, RM167.10 and RM167.2 a gramme respectively.
Volume was nil, while open interest amounted to 27 contracts.
At 9.30 am, the price of physical gold was down 61 sen to RM161.83 per gramme. — Bernama
