KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 ― Share prices on Bursa Malaysia extended its gains from yesterday to open higher this morning on continued buying support for heavyweights, dealers said.

At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 12.47 points better at 1,683.29 versus yesterday's close of 1,670.82.     

The index opened 3.83 points higher at 1,674.65.             

RHB Retails Research, however, maintained a negative view of the short-term outlook for the local index as it described yesterday's surge as mere bargain-hunting activities following the recent losses.

“Technically speaking, we believe the negative sentiment remains intact as long as the index fails to break above the 200-day moving average value line decisively.

“Therefore, we advise traders to maintain short positions, since we originally recommended initiating short below the 1,675 points level earlier,” it said in a research note today.

On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index rose 68.58 points to 11,664.68, the FBMT100 Index gained 68.42 points to 11,370.59 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index surged 83.36 points to 12,408.01.

The FBM 70 added 20 points to 12,885.49 and the FBM Ace advanced 20.89 points to 5,690.91.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 43.28 points higher at 7,864.78, the Industrial Index improved 19.19 points for 3,270.68 while the Finance Index jumped 63.77 points to 14,230.89.

Market breadth was positive with gainers beating losers 238 to 77, with 139 counters unchanged, 1,278 untraded and 11 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 157.85 million shares worth RM87.83 million.                

Heavyweights, Maybank rose five sen to RM8.69, TNB gained eight sen for RM13.24, Petronas Chemicals earned two sen to RM6.82 and Public Bank perked four sen to RM18.56.

Of active, SKH Consortium and Borneo Oil were flat at 8.5 sen and 14.5 sen, respectively, while AirAsia X and Flonic Hi-Tech earned half-a-sen each to 27 sen and five sen, respectively. ― Bernama