KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened  higher today due to support for bluechips but overall sentiment remained  sluggish with global crude oil prices continuing to dip.

At 9.01am, the key index stood at 1,780.18, up 0.64 points, after opening 1.27 points higher at 1,779.54.

A dealer said investor sentiment was still intact although crude prices fell below US$68 (RM234) per barrel yesterday.

He said yesterday’s decline hurt investment activities for the local oil and gas-related stocks, coupled with Petronas’ recent announcement of a reduction in capital expenditure for next year.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 8.59 points to 12,203.99, FBMT100 Index increased 10.69 points to 11,919.52, the FBM Ace added 30.02 points to 5,993.43 and the FBM 70 gained 3.71 points to 13,105.68.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index garnered 1.9 points to 8,177.3, the Industrial Index dropped 1.05 points to 3,245.33 and the Finance Index contracted 15.88 points to 15,897.83.

Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 102 to 73 while 121 counters were unchanged, 1,402 untraded and nine others were suspended.  

Turnover stood at 52.74 million shares worth RM21.9 million.       

Among heavyweights, Maybank improved one sen at RM9.15, Public Bank was flat at RM18.38, TNB fell six sen to RM14 but both Axiata and Sime Darby were flat at RM7 and RM9.44, respectively.

Among actives, Minetech Resources slipped half-a-sen to 12.5 sen, Jag Bhd gained by the same quantom to 18.5 sen, KNM Group Bhd perked 2.5 sen to 49.5 sen, oil and gas-linked Bumi Armada improved four sen to RM1.05 while Sumatec Resources advanced half-a-sen to 23.5 sen. — Bernama