KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher this morning, driven by buying support in selected heavyweights and blue chips.
At 9.36am, the benchmark index stood at 1,875.36, up 3.7 points, after opening 0.58 point better at 1,872.24.
Leading the top gainers list, British American Tobacco soared 64 sen to RM63.04. Allianz Malaysia surged 44 sen to RM10.84 while United Plantations and Kuala Lumpur Kepong advanced 34 sen each to RM27.96 and RM24.54 respectively.
Of the other heavyweights, Maybank and TNB were pegged at RM9.94 and RM12.16 respectively, Public Bank gained 16 sen to RM20.64 but CIMB shed 3.0 sen to RM7.33.
Among actives, Salcon added 1.5 sen to 80.5 sen, Advance Synergy appreciated 2.0 sen to 25.5 sen and Land & General rose 2.5 sen to 57.5 sen.
Market breadth was positive, with gainers outpacing losers 220 to 146, while 220 counters were unchanged, 1,033 untraded and 34 others suspended. Turnover stood at 191.19 million shares worth RM143.2 million.
Maybank Investment Bank Research said major Asian stock markets closed higher yesterday as China reported better industrial profits while positive overnight US data signalled recovery in the world’s largest economy was intact.
“Today, we expect some minor buying to emerge near the obvious supports of 1,850 to 1,864 points, with heavy profit taking at the resistances of 1,871 and 1,889 points,” it said in a note.
On the scoreboard, the Finance Index rose 27.18 points to 17,248.66, the Industrial Index was up 4.11 points to 3,183.56 and the Plantation Index increased 24.74 points to 9,137.79.
The FBM Emas Index was 25.07 points better at 12,954.66, the FBMT100 Index was up 22.91 points to 12,602.8, the FBM 70 improved 17.96 points to 14,031 but the FBM Ace fell 8.45 points to 6,630.8. — Bernama
