Bursa Malaysia higher in early trade

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher on renewed buying interest and in line with the stronger overnight performance on Wall Street.

At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.02 points or 0.18 per cent better at 1,722.07 from Thursday's close of 1,719.05. The index opened 2.23 points higher at 1,721.28.

Meanwhile, market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 127 to 83 while 155 counters were unchanged, 1,498 untraded and 35 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 92.45 million shares worth RM55.96 million.

JF Apex Securities said the benchmark index was expected to hover between 1,700 and 1,730 points today given the recent lacklustre performance.

"US markets advanced overnight led by technology and material counters, amid plans for an infrastructure spending plan next year, progress on tax reform and possible government shutdown.

"The European stocks also ended higher amid progress in Brexit talks and US tax reform," it said in a statement today.

Among heavyweights, Public Bank rose four sen to RM20, Petronas Chemicals increased five sen to RM7.45, Maxis gained two sen to RM5.94, Sime Darby Plantation jumped 18 sen to RM5.34, TNB and Axiata were flat at RM15.58 and RM5.34, respectively, and Maybank fell two sen to RM9.25.

Of actives, Hibiscus Petroleum rose 1.5 sen to 80 sen, LCTH Corp advanced 10 sen to 54 sen, Kejuruteraan Asastera was flat at 25 sen and Sapura Energy eased two sen to 94.5 sen.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index improved 17.81 points to 12,350.69, the FBMT 100 Index was up 18.32 points at 12,022.31, the FBM Emas Syariah Index bagged 29.78 points to 12,818.12, the FBM Ace rose 28.65 points to 6,277.34 and the FBM 70 increased 13.07 points to 15,102.03.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index trimmed 2.21 points to 15,942.77, the Industrial Index expanded 3.58 points to 3,150.99 while the Plantation Index was 11.02 points lower at 7,847.49.

The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM158.76 per gramme, down RM1.03 from RM159.79 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama