KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 ― Shares on Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday's gains to open higher today on continued buying support for selected plantation and finance stocks, dealers said.

As at 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.4 points higher at 1,885.88 points after opening 3.74 points better at 1,885.22.   

In a research note today, RHB Retail Research said that the close above the 1,880 points level yesterday may lead to a return in buying support.

“This suggests that the benchmark index could resume its upward movement which started from Aug 2013’s low.

“In this scenario, long positions could be considered and the next resistance levels are at 1,885 points, near May 20’s high.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index added 3.8 points to 17,269.02, the Plantation Index climbed 40.28 points to 9,267.93 and the Industrial Index improved 24.57 points to 3,242.75.

The FBM Emas Index was 27.1 points higher at 13,057.09, the FBMT100 Index advanced 25.49 points to 12,686.19, the FBM 70 increased 12.4 points to 14,173.51 but the FBM Ace fell 1.48 points to 6,792.71.

Market breadth was positive as gainers outpaced losers 157 to 88, while 182 counters were unchanged, 1,202 untraded and 17 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 125.73 million shares worth RM69.13 million.

Among actives, Malaysia Airlines and Metronic Global earned half-a-sen each to 24 sen and 11 sen, respectively, Infortech Alliance added one sen to 39 sen while SapuraKencana rose eight sen to RM4.41.

Of heavyweights, Maybank, CIMB, Public Bank and Axiata were all flat at RM9.81, RM7.30, RM20.36 and RM6.89, respectively. ― Bernama