KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia kicked off on a firm note this morning, on strong buying support for selected heavyweights and blue chips.

At 9.28am, the benchmark index was quoted 1.67 points better at 1,878.29 points, after opening 2.15 points easier at 1,874.47 points.

Leading the top gainers list, United Plantations surged 56 sen to RM27.98, Petronas Gas soared 46 sen to RM24.46 and British American Tobacco jumped 40 sen to RM62.80. Public Bank rose 4.0 sen to RM20.66, Axiata gained 1.0 sen to RM6.91, TNB and CIMB remained pegged at RM12.14 and RM7.38 respectively, while Maybank lost 7.0 sen to RM9.91.

The most actively traded stock in the early session was Main Market debutant 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings. It opened at RM1.45, for a 7.0 sen premium over its offer price of RM1.38, with 16.83 million shares transacted.

Market breadth was positive, with gainers outpacing losers 199 to 168, while 218 counters were unchanged, 1,035 untraded and 35 others were suspended. Turnover stood at 217.04 million shares worth RM249.86 million.

Kenanga Research said the key index was staging a mild technical rebound, and was poised to challenge the 1,882 points technical resistance.

“Despite the temporary positive-biased technical trend, there is growing scepticism over its sustainability as the rise of the index was not supported by an increase in trading volume.

“This suggests that market players are still adopting a cautious stance, thus we would not be surprised of any pullbacks in the near-term,” it said in a note.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index eased 12.18 points to 17,275.74 points, but the Industrial Index was up 13.51 points at 3,185.52 points and the Plantation Index increased 16.71 points to 9,162.78 points.

The FBM Emas Index was 1.35 points better at 12,970.35 points, the FBMT100 Index edged up 0.5 of a point to 12,618.83 points but the FBM 70 gave up 41.59 points to 14,034.37 points and the FBM Ace fell 7.98 points to 6,645.03 points. — Bernama