KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher today on fresh buying interest.       

At 9.09am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 8.11 points higher at 1,785.93, after opening 3.32 points better at 1,781.14.   

HwangDBS Vickers Research said the Malaysian bourse was likely to rebound further today on the back of overnight positive performances posted by the Wall Street.

“Wall Street jumped last night. Major US equity barometers were up between 0.8 per cent and 1.4 per cent at the closing bell, as investors anticipate that central bankers around the world would maintain their monetary stimulus policies,” it said in a research note today.

The research house said the benchmark KLCI might climb towards the support-turned-resistance level of 1,785 ahead after recovering 5.2 points yesterday out of a cumulative loss of 37.4 points in the preceding five days.

“Hoping to ride on a market bounce-up today are beaten-down index-linked counters such as Maybank, AmBank, CIMB, Tenaga and UEM Sunrise,” it added.  

On the scoreboard, the Finance index perked 49.5 to 16,897.02, the Plantation index surged 12.19 points to 8,338.32 and the Industrial index gained 3.15 points to 3,009.6.    

The FBM Emas Index advanced 54.17 points to 12,423.15, the FBM100 Index appreciated 52.52 points to 12,168.73 and the FBM 70 Index increased 49.92 points to 14,226.24.

Gainers outpaced losers by 198 to 32, with 101 counters unchanged, 1,246 untraded and 13 others were suspended.

Turnover totalled 87.286 million shares worth RM57.203 million.

Among actives, Daya Materials earned one sen to 32 sen, Flonic Hi-Tec and Astral Supreme each inched up half-a-sen to 15 sen and 20.5 sen, respectively, while Sona Petroleum was flat at 43 sen. 

Heavyweights, Maybank was up two sen to RM10.42, CIMB rose four sen to RM7.88, Sime Darby inched up one sen to RM9.50 but Maxis eased two sen to RM7.06. 

Top gainers, TNB and Petronas Dagangan both advanced 24 sen to RM9.22 and RM26.98, respectively, See Hup Consolidated jumped 16.5 sen to 76.5 sen and Batu Kawan rose 16 sen to RM18.66. — Bernama