KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher on continued buying support, with interest seen in finance counters, dealers said.
At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,834.47, up 2.81 points, after opening 5.47 points weaker at 1,826.19.
Finance stocks — Maybank and Public Bank — rose eight sen to RM9.78 and RM19.16, respectively, and AMMB Holdings added six sen to RM7.35.
HwangDBS Vickers Research said the local bourse could continue its recovery today, riding on the prevailing positive momentum.
“From a technical perspective, the benchmark FBM KLCI is set to rise further towards the immediate resistance barrier of 1,840 ahead.
“Giving sentiment an added boost is the buoyant overnight performance on Wall Street,” the research house said in a note today.
Key US equity barometers are up between 0.5 per cent and 0.6 per cent, moving higher amid media reports that the Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen would consider changing the pace of its tapering process should the US economy weakens.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index gained 66.43 points to 16,557.36, the Industrial Index added 0.45 of a point to 3,139.12, while the Plantation Index fell 19.23 points to 8,790.45.
The FBM Emas Index was up 16.45 points to 12,665.07, the FBMT100 Index garnered 18.2 points to 12,343.18, the FBM 70 advanced 17.58 points to 13,801.72 but the FBM Ace declined 9.93 points to 6,579.09.
Gainers outpaced losers 171 to 152, while 184 counters were unchanged, 1,123 untraded and 30 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 199.52 million shares worth RM111.21 million.
Among actives, PDZ Holdings earned one sen to 13 sen, AT Systematization added half-a-sen to 9.5 sen while Daya Materials fell one sen to 41.5 sen.
As for heavyweights, Tenaga Nasional lost four sen to RM11.92, while CIMB gained two sen to RM7.12 and Axiata added one sen to RM6.56. — Bernama
