KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 ― Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher today, tracking the overnight gains on Wall Street amid improved crude oil prices.

At 9.05am, the KLCI stood at 1,707.62, up 1.07 points from yesterday's close of 1,706.55.

The index opened 2.14 points higher at 1,708.69 at 9am.

Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers by 184 to 78, while 181 counters were unchanged, 1,285 untraded and 21 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 152.36 million shares worth RM62.01 million.                

In a note, Public Investment Bank Bhd said, the KLCI opened higher today after US stocks climbed to record highs overnight amid an improved US dollar as a wave of optimism about the prospects for global growth swept through the markets.

"On Wall Street, the overnight Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 118.95 points to 20,743, marking the eighth straight session of closing records for the blue-chip average,” it said.      

Meanwhile, US oil prices were reportedly held near seven-week highs today after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was upbeat on oil production cut.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals both added four sen each to RM8.44 and RM7.37, respectively, while Maxis and CIMB inched up one sen each to RM6.46 and RM5.09, respectively.

Among actives, Vivocom and its warrant improved half-a-sen each to 18.5 sen and 8.5 sen, respectively, Hibiscus Petroleum gained one sen to 52 sen and Hiap Huat rose 1.5 sen to 10 sen.

The FBM Emas Index increased by 9.51 points to 12,036.47, FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 7.52 points to 12,527.65 and the FBMT100 Index garnered 6.88 points to 11,713.21.

The FBM 70 rose 6.37 points to 13,932.96 and the FBM Ace perked 25.16 points to 5,405.56.

On a sectoral basis, the Finance Index jumped 26.28 points to 15,091.55 and the Industrial Index advanced 2.55 points to 3,281.24.

The Plantation Index, however, was 0.87-of-a-point lower at 8,005.08. ― Bernama