KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher this morning, continuing yesterday’s gains on blue chips buying support, dealers said.

At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 4.23 points to 1,807.81, after opening 2.06 points better at 1,805.64.

The overnight uptrend posted on Wall Street also contributed to lift the local bourse to stage a positive performance.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said Wall Street climbed last night on persisting expectations for the Federal Reserve to maintain its monetary stimulus measures.

“The rising external tide could lift our Malaysian bourse today.

“Its benchmark FBM KLCI will probably pull further away from the 1,800 psychological level and make its way towards the next resistance hurdle of 1,825 ahead.” the research house said in a note today.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 2.33 points to 16,837.44, the Plantation Index gained 15.73 points to 8,444.74 but the Industrial Index slipped 3.5 points to 3,096.86.

The FBM Emas Index surged 23.87 points to 12,581.96, the FBMT100 Index advanced 23.93 points to 12,309.17, the FBM Ace garnered 16.11 points to 5,579.07 and the FBM 70 gained 7.78 points to 14,354.55.

Gainers led losers 156 to 55, with 167 counters unchanged, 1,245 untraded and 15 others were suspended.   

Turnover stood at 87.955 million shares worth RM80.149 million.

Among actives, China Stationery earned one sen to 23 sen, SapuraKencana rose 20 sen to RM4.28, while Sumatec was flat at nine sen.

As for heavyweights, CIMB gained three sen to RM7.62, while Maybank, Axiata Group, Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals were all flat at RM9.95, RM6.91, RM9.58 and RM7.11, respectively. — Bernama