KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 ― Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, taking the cue from the strong overnight performance of Wall Street and European stocks.
US stocks ended at more-than-three-week highs on Tuesday on largely upbeat corporate earnings reports while Britain and the European Union were seen making headway on a Brexit deal ahead of a leaders’ summit.
At 9.07am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.89 points higher at 1,571.12, from yesterday’s close of 1,566.23.
The benchmark index opened 1.87 points higher at 1,568.10.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 211 to 62, while 185 counters were unchanged, 1,518 untraded and 14 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 134.23 million shares worth RM69.12 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said despite the improving positivity, there was no follow-through buying interest yesterday to leave the key index in a dithering mode again.
However, it said profit-taking activities were mild as pockets of buying interest elsewhere were prevalent and were seen as encouraging the Malaysian equity market’s near-term positivity.
“The gains on most major global indices overnight will help to shore up sentiments on Malaysian stocks further and this will also help to reverse yesterday’s mild pullback.
“As it is, we think that there are still buying opportunities on some of the beaten down sector leaders and this will help to provide the near-term impetus for the key index to regain some of its lost ground over the near term,” the research firm said.
On the upside, the resistances are at the 1,572 and 1580 levels, with the supports pegged at the 1,562 and 1,550 levels, it added.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals added five sen each at RM8.56 and RM7.34 respectively, while Tenaga gained six sen to RM13.76.
Public Bank rose 10 sen to RM19.36 and IHH Healthcare improved one sen to RM5.64.
Of the most active, D&O Green added two sen to 67 sen, GD Express gained 1.5 sen to 30 sen and KNM warrant edged up half-a-sen to 19 sen.
Green Packet warrant and IFCA were flat at 31.5 sen and 32 sen respectively.
The FBM Emas Index increased 36.71 points to 11,192.95, the FBMT 100 Index bagged 37.16 points to 11,005.98 and the FBM 70 rose 59.45 points to 14,128.79.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index was 34.40 points higher at 11,803.73 while the FBM Ace went up 26.63 points to 4,667.20.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index increased 37.96 points to 15,183.89, the Plantation Index improved 12.77 points to 6,647.91 and the Industrial Products & Services Index was 0.19 point better at 151.62. ― Bernama
