KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 ― The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) opened higher in the early session today, lifted by fresh buying appetite in heavyweights and external factors including an oil price rebound.

At 9.15am, the FBM KLCI was 5.72 points higher at 1,655.68 from yesterday's close at 1,649.96.

It had opened 1.47 points better at 1,651.43.

JF Apex Securities said the FBM KLCI is expected to extend its momentum towards its resistance of 1,670 points following bullish overnight performance in Europe.

“The European stocks rallied after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the central bank is ready to ease its policy next month,” it said in a note today.

Meanwhile, the US market was closed yesterday for a national holiday.               

Of the heavyweights, CIMB increased eight sen to RM4.34, SapuraKencana Petroleum rose five sen to RM1.88, Genting jumped nine sen to RM7.79 while MISC and Axiata both went up six sen to RM8.75 and RM5.69 respectively.

Among top gainers, Asia File Corp surged 27 sen to RM5.18, Petronas Dagangan expanded 22 sen to RM25.30, Latitude Tree was 15 sen higher at RM6.75 while UEM Edgenta rose nine sen to RM3.21.

Of the actives, Hubline and Dnonce Technology edged up half-a-sen each to 1.5 sen and 19.5 sen respectively, SKH Technology inched down half-a-sen to nine sen and Aemulus Holdings fell 6.5 sen to 37.5 sen.                  

On the scoreboards, the FBM Emas Index bagged 34.15 points to 11,472.87, the FBMT100 Index increased 33.56 points to 11,183.10 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 37.84 points higher at 12,247.49.              

The FBM 70 improved 19.74 points to 12,669.68 and the FBM Ace gained 15.20 points for 5,839.32.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index expanded 15.61 points to 7,787.88 and the Industrial Index added 1.33 points to 3,256.74, while the Finance Index rose 41.81 points for 13,917.24.               

Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 162 to 69 with 144 counters unchanged, 1,372 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 127.14 million shares worth RM49.04 million. ― Bernama