KL shares higher at opening

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares on Bursa Malaysia were slightly higher at the opening on mild buying support and in line with the regional trend, a dealer said.

At 9.02am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,838.09, up by 0.50 of-a-point from Tuesday's close of 1,838.04.It opened 0.08 of-a-point better at 1,838.12.

Gainers outpaced losers 200 to 97, while 225 counters were unchanged, 1,339 untraded and 33 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 148.26 million shares worth RM63.31 million.

A dealer said he expects Bursa Malaysia, together with its Asian peers to continue build on the strong momentum, while taking cue from the optimism on US market, and heading into the earnings season.

"The FBM KLCI yesterday rose 4.89 points (0.27 per cent) to 1,838.04 and we hope this positive momentum will continue. Any near-term weakness is likely to be short-term in nature," the dealer added.

Among heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM9.90, Tenaga added two points to RM15.88, Public Bank fell two sen to RM20.94, while Petronas Chemicals was one sen lower at RM8.02.

Of the actives, Sumatec Resources and Sino Hua-An inched up half-a-sen each to 11 sen and 61 sen, respectively, Green Packet gained one sen to 56.5 sen and PUC fell half-a-sen to 28 sen.

The FBM Emas Index rose 5.45 points to 13,318.10, the FBMT 100 Index added 4.88 points to 12,981.19, and the FBM 70 up 21.41 points to 16,813.04.

The FBM Emas Syariah Index improved 17.34 points to 13,759.66 and the FBM Ace was 17.59 points better at 6,822.12.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index added 2.02 points to 17,384.65 and the Plantation Index gained 26.89 points to 8,069.84 and the Industrial Index inched up 7.94 points to 3,385.67.

The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM163.33 per gramme, down four sen from RM163.37 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama