KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 — Bursa Malaysia opened higher today on strong buying support amid renewed bullishness over US President Donald Trump’s tax policies.
At 9.07am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,701.90, up 2.96 points, from 1,698.94 on Friday.
The index opened 2.2 points stronger at 1,701.14 at 9.00am.
Gainers edged losers 217 to 52 with 210 counters unchanged, 1,216 untraded and 15 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 178.71 million shares worth RM53.29 million.
In a note, Public Investment Bank Bhd said the bullish performance on the KLCI were in tandem with rising US stocks and industrial commodities prices.
“The dollar forged ahead at the end of last week, in which an outbreak of worries over forthcoming European elections was replaced by renewed bullishness about Trump’s policies.
“The more confident mood was also driven by optimism about corporate earnings and evidence of strong trade growth in China,” it said.
Of heavyweights, Maybank gained three sen to RM8.33, Public Bank improved 12 sen to RM20.22, TNB rose two sen to RM13.52 and Sime Darby added four sen to RM9.03.
Of actives, Hibiscus Petroleum advanced one sen to 54.5 sen and Sterling Progress, KNM and IFCA MSC edged up half-a-sen each to 21 sen, 36 sen and 51 sen, respectively.
The FBM Emas Index was 23.0 points better at 11,986.43, the FBMT100 Index rose 19.13 points to 11,662.70 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 19.54 points to 12,509.94.
The FBM 70 added 18.50 points to 13,830.20 and the FBM Ace jumped 39.06 points to 5,285.45.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index gained 28.92 points to 8,244.21, the Finance Index perked 58.22 points to 15,048.94 and the Industrial Index added 3.68 points to 3,241.10. — Bernama
