KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia were traded slightly higher in th early session today, with buying interest mostly seen in heavyweights led by Petronas Chemicals, dealers said.
Thirty-five minutes after opening, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 8.89 points or 0.516 per cent to 1,732.69 after opening at 1,726.27.
Petronas Chemicals, which contributed 1.156 points to the FBM KLCI’s rise, increased eight sen to RM6.58.
HwangDBS Vickers Research said as bargain hunters continue to slug it out with profit-takers, the local bourse could be locked in sideways trading pattern for now.
“On the chart, the benchmark FBM KLCI will probably oscillate around its intermediate support line of 1,720. This comes as investors are waiting for fresh market developments to emerge,” it said in a research note today.
It said the dearth of market leads also caused Wall Street to finish little changed on Friday.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 81.55 points to 16,264.28, but the Plantation Index slipped 10.12 points to 8,143.58 and the Industrial Index improved 16.52 points to 2,917.59.
The FBM Emas Index was 60.13 points higher at 12,017.49, the FBM100 Index advanced 57.8 points to 11,774.83, the FBM 70 Index rose 56.399 points to 13,637.51 and the FBM Ace garnered 15.79 points to 4,991.64.
Gainers led losers by 236 to 76, while 135 counters were unchanged, 1,117 untraded and 14 were suspended.
Turnover stood at 196.286 million shares worth RM100.749 million.
Among actives, Asia Media Group edged up half a sen to 12.5 sen, Instacom Group-WB rose 10 sen to 10.5 sen and Gabungan AQRS-warrants A was 2.5 sen higher at 33 sen.
Heavyweights, Maybank and Axiata rose four sen each to RM10.04 and RM6.76, respectively, while Sime Darby edged up one sen to RM9.41. — Bernama
