KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 ― Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher today on renewed buying interest in the local market.
At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.90 points better at 1,848.27 after opening 2.03 points higher at 1,847.4.
Regional markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.42 per cent to 14,478.04, Singapore’s Straits Times was 0.21 per cent higher at 3,253.200 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng went up 0.11 per cent to 22,696.01.
JF Apex Securities said Asian stocks were poised to rise today, trackinggains on Wall Street overnight.
“As such, we expect the index to be positive today with the near-term outlook maintained at sideways trend,” said the research firm in a note today.
Meanwhile, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.5 per cent to 109.9 in March 2014 against 106.2 recorded in the same month last year, the Statistics Department said yesterday.
Cumulatively, the CPI was up 3.4 per cent in the first three months of the year to 109.7 compared with 106.1 registered in the same period a year ago, it said in a statement.
On the scoreboard, the Plantation Index rose 22.04 points to 8,948.06, the Industrial Index added 10 points to 3,201.06 and the Finance Index jumped 48.84 points to 16,890.47.
The FBM Emas Index increased 21.98 points to 12,853.37, the FBMT100 Index jumped 20.55 points to 12,491.84, the FBM 70 went up 27.09 points to 14,185.83 and the FBM Ace chalked-up 34.59 points to 6,826.2.
Market breadth was positive with gainers outnumbering losers 179 to 57, while 167 counters were unchanged, 1,223 untraded and 15 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 176.585 million shares worth RM55.526 million.
Among actives, 1 Utopia was one sen higher at nine sen, MAS rose 1.5 sen to23 sen, Frontken edged up half-a-sen to 13 sen while PDZ Holdings was flat at15.5 sen.
As for heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB increased three sen each to RM9.78 andRM7.38 respectively, Public Bank rose six sen to RM19.80 but TNB declined four sen to RM11.86. ― Bernama
