KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday’s gains to open higher today on continued buying support in most of the heavyweight stocks, dealers said.

At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 6.27 points higher at 1,685.07 versus Thursday’s close of 1,678.80.

The index opened 2.31 points better at 1,681.11. 

Gainers outpaced decliners 182 to 68, while 210 counters were unchanged, 1,225 untraded and 22 others suspended. 

Turnover stood at 164.60 million shares worth RM92.64 million.

In a note today, AllianceDBS Research said it expects the benchmark index to likely trade above the 1,678.80 level today, as yesterday’s trend showed that buying power was stronger than selling pressure. 

"The crossover 1,676 to settle at the day’s high of 1,678.80 on Thursday through the last few minutes of selective buying of blue-chip stocks may not be decisive. 

"But the buying attempt to carry the market above the 1,676 level was encouraging as it indicated the willingness and guts on the part of certain market participants to challenge the sideways environment,” it said. 

The research firm said a decisive crossover of 1,676 is necessary to see the market gearing towards 1,700.   

The FBM Emas Index rose 39.57 points to 11,835.42, the FBMT 100 Index improved 38.71 points to 11,530.14 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 40.79 points to 12,470.92.

The FBM 70 also gained 30.61 points to 13,601.97 and the FBM Ace improved 60.98 points to 5,512.69.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index was 60.60 points higher at 14,514.01 and the Plantation Index recovered 26.98 points to 7,700.626, while the Industrial Index rose 2.17 points to 3,177.94. 

Among heavyweights, TNB gained two sen to RM14.60, Public Bank rose eight sen to RM19.74, Maybank perked five sen to RM8.05 while IHH Healthcare improved six sen RM6.68.

Of the actives, Talam Transform and KNM Group added one sen each to 5.5 sen and 41 sen respectively, Iris Corp increased 1.5 sen to 16 sen and HSS Engineers earned half-a-sen to 64.5 sen. — Bernama