KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened slightly lower on profit-taking, dealers said. At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,814.13, down 0.82 of a point.
Gainers led losers 155 to 52 while 110 counters were unchanged, 1,314 untraded and 25 others were suspended. Turnover stood at 52.49 million shares worth RM19.29 million.
HwangDBS Vickers Research, however, was optimistic that the Malaysian bourse could extend its gains yesterday, driven by the increase on Wall Street.
The research house said major US equity indices jumped between 0.8 per cent and 1.1 per cent at the closing bell as better economic data outweighed rising geopolitical tension in Ukraine.
“This will probably pave the way for our Malaysian bourse to extend yesterday’s gains, which may have partially reflected the positive external vibes already,” it said in a statement today.
HwangDBS Vickers said the benchmark FBM KLCI, after rising 10 points yesterday, could climb slightly higher towards the immediate resistance threshold of 1,825 ahead.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index gained 17.77 points to 16,377.02, the Plantation Index rose 12.46 points to 8,913.14 but the Industrial Index shed 5.48 points to 3,159.04. The FBM Emas Index was down 0.779 of a point to 12,569.73, the FBMT100 Index slipped 4.26 points to 12,237.07, the FBM Ace firmed 19.2 points to 6,632.05 and the FBM 70 earned 0.21 points to 13,797.51.
Among actives, Luster Industries and Hubline were flat at 10.5 sen and 4.5 sen respectively, EA Holdings gained 1 sen to 18.5 sen while Asia Bioenergy and MAS earned 0.5 sen each to 9.5 sen and 23.5 sen respectively.
As for heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB gained 2 sen each to RM9.57 and RM7.02 respectively, TNB and Axiata lost 2 sen each to RM11.98 and RM6.48 respectively, while Sime Darby was flat at RM9.20. — Bernama
