KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia extended their gains from yesterday to open firmer this morning, boosted by persistent buying momentum, dealers said.

At 9.01am, the benchmark index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 9.45 points better at 1,785.37 points, after opening 12.96 points higher at 1,788.88 points.

Gains were also supported by demand in finance and banking stocks like CIMB, Maybank and Public Bank.

Market breadth was positive with gainers overwhelming losers 224 to 14, while 85 counters were unchanged, 1,288 untraded and 23 others were suspended.      

Volume amounted at 94.403 million shares worth RM43.671 million. 

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the local market was expected to recover further today.

“Chart wise, the benchmark FBM KLCI could climb towards the immediate resistance threshold of 1,785-points ahead,” the research house said in a note.

Stocks that are expected to come under the spotlight today included MMC and Mudajaya, which reported that their joint-venture vehicle was seen to be the front runner to clinch the RM8 billion central spine highway project that would stretch 465 km from Kota Bahru to Bentong.

It also included Malaysia Building Society, which has proposed to undertake a rights issue to raise maximum gross proceeds of RM1.5 billion and Iris Corp, following the award of a RM40 million contract by Felda to build and develop an integrated community centre in Negeri Sembilan.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index climbed 111.43 points to 16,701.54, the Plantation Index increased 22.33 points to 8,359.9 and the Industrial Index earned 24.54 points to 3,072.01.

The FBM Emas Index chalked up 61.08 points to 12,431.75, the FBM100 Index rose 55.9 points to 12,161.15, the FBM Ace gained 32.82 points to 5,490.62 and the FBM 70 added 30.31 points at 14,201.6.

Among actives, 1 Utopia perked one sen to 7.5 sen, Hubline inched up half-a-sen to six sen while Cuscapi was flat at 46.5 sen.      

Of heavyweights, Maybank soared six sen to RM9.96, Sime Darby rose seven sen to RM9.51 and CIMB chalked up eight sen to RM7.50.

However, both Axiata Group and Petronas Chemicals shed one sen each to RM6.91 and RM6.95, respectively. — Bernama