KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — Shares on Bursa Malaysia were traded higher in early trade today, supported by gains in selected heavyweights led by oil and gas related counters as well as finance and banking stocks, dealers said.

Thirty-nine minutes after opening, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) jumped 16.59 points or almost one per cent to 1,763.62 after opening at 1,753.14.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said investors took a cue from Wall Street’s improved performance last night with its key bellwethers closing better at between 0.9 per cent and 1.3 per cent as investors cheered on the easing geopolitical tension in Syria and stronger economic numbers in China.

It said the better external vibes might have already been partly reflected in the buoyant performance of Asian bourses yesterday.

“Back home, sentiment is on the upturn following yesterday’s 23-point gain in the key FBM KLCI with the September futures contracts reversing from a 12-point discount initially to a four-point premium at the closing,” it said in a research note.

The research house said the benchmark index could challenge the immediate resistance barrier of 1,750 ahead.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index advanced 150.361 points to 16,537.23, the Plantation Index rose 45.76 points to 8,270.47 and the Industrial Index improved 38.14 points to 2,988.69.

The FBM Emas Index garnered 100.771 points to 12,209.74, the FBM100 Index jumped 104.06 points to 11,969.93, the FBM 70 was 84.55 points higher at 13,801.01 and the FBM Ace climbed 64.85 points to 5,084.7.

Advancers led decliners by 353 to 49, with 158 counters unchanged, 1,004 untraded and 13 suspended.

It was mild trading with volume at 330.722 million shares worth RM226.879 million.   

Among actives, DVM Technology and Asia Media Group edged up one sen each to four sen and 13 sen respectively and The Media Shoppe rose half a sen to 10 sen.

Heavyweights, Maybank gained eight sen to RM10.12, Axiata added one sen to RM6.77, Sime Darby rose seven sen to RM9.48 and CIMB increased nine sen to RM7.49.

Oil and gas related counters like Petronas Gas and Petronas Dagangan gained 54 sen and 80 sen each to RM21.42 and RM28.40 respectively. — Bernama