KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 ― The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) opened higher this morning lifted by buying support despite the overnight weak performance on Wall Street.

As at 9.17am, the key index stood at 1,852.85, up 2.46 points, after opening 2.86 points better at 1,853.25 points.             

Wall Street ended lower following the disappointing German economic data as well as ahead of the US retail sales report.

Back home, the Finance Index rose 31.97 points to 17,202.91, Plantation Index increased 23.13 points to 8,937.85 and Industrial Index gained 3.44 points to 3,196.23.

The FBM Emas Index improved 15.41 points to 12,983.9, FBMT100 Index advanced 12.77 points to 12,540.43 and the FBM Ace perked 11.91 points to 7,135.71.

However, the FBM 70 shed 0.26 of a point to 14,306.23.                

Market breadth was positive with advancers thumping decliners by 196 to 104, while 239 counters were unchanged, 1,080 untraded and 13 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 113.2 million shares worth RM46.87 million.                  

Of the heavyweights, Maybank gained three sen to RM9.97, Public Bank rose 18 sen to RM19.18 while Sime Darby was flat at RM9.49.

TNB fell six sen to RM12.02, Axiata eased four sen to RM6.93 and CIMB slipped three sen to RM6.89.

Among actives, PDZ Holdings added one sen to 25.5 sen while Sumatec Resources and Frontken inched up half-a-sen each to 53.5 sen and 17.5 sen, respectively. ― Bernama