KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher in early trading today, extending upward momentum as sentiments were boosted by Wall Street’s overnight gains, dealers said.

One minute into trading, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.92 points better at 1,794.46, after opening 2.84 points higher at 1,794.38.

Market breadth was positive, with 134 gainers and 29 losers, while 111 counters were unchanged, 1,304 untraded and 15 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 43.052 million shares worth RM29.047 million.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said a combination of falling jobless claims and better corporate results in the US, lifted sentiments on Wall Street last night, with its key stock indices ending between flat and rising up to 0.5 per cent.

“This will likely set the stage for Asian equities to build on their recovery momentum today,” it added. On the local front, the research house said the benchmark FBM KLCI could be grinding closer towards the psychological mark of 1,800.

It said the positive external backdrop could boost buying interest in index-linked counters like Tenaga Nasional following its robust quarterly financial report card released yesterday, and CIMB, after its Thailand banking subsidiary reported a 65 per cent interim net profit jump.

On the scoreboard, the Plantation Index improved 11.57 points to 8,394.46, the Finance Index added 7.41 points to 17,230.17 while the Industrial Index fell 1.47 points to 3,046.38.

The FBM Emas Index gained 18.84 points to 12,536.27, the FBM 70 Index rose 12.09 points to 14,488.04, the FBMT100 improved 17.77 points to 12,263.52 and the FBM ACE Index garnered 33.04 points to 4,983.60.

Among actives, APFT-WA and Instacom Group rose 1.5 sen each to 25 sen and 36.5 sen respectively, while Hubline was flat at five sen. As for the heavyweights, Maybank was unchanged at RM10.60, while CIMB and Axiata added two sen each to RM8.48 and RM6.78 respectively. — Bernama