KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 ― Bursa Malaysia opened higher in the early trading session today, lifted by some heavyweights in industrial product counters as metal-related commodities are trading at a 13-year high, an analyst said.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) improved 2.20 points to 1,532.85 from 1,530.65 at yesterday's close, after opening 2.68 points higher at 1,533.33.
Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 152 to 122, while 239 counters were unchanged, 1,699 untraded and 10 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 182.53 million units worth RM89.72 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the building material segment may start to see trading activities amid the rebound in respective commodities.
"We believe traders may focus on the commodity-related sectors such as the oil and gas, and plantation sectors as crude palm oil price and Brent oil are rallying strongly in their uptrend cycle.
"Meanwhile, overall market sentiment should remain positive as FBM Small Cap is on the rise," it said.
Among the heavyweights, Press Metal advanced eight sen to RM6.36, Petronas Chemicals added five sen to RM9.10, Maybank gained four sen to RM8.30, and Genting Malaysia inched up three sen to RM2.80.
As for the actives, Sapura Energy stayed flat at five sen, Pertama Digital firmed 3.5 sen to 91.5 sen, DneX increased one sen to 98 sen, while Dataprep slipped 2.5 sen to 43.5 sen.
On the index board, FBM ACE advanced 6.94 points to 6,255.22, FBM 70 strengthened 10.38 points to 13,559.79, FBM Emas Index firmed 13.13 points to 11,031.99, FBMT 100 Index gained 13.75 points to 10,711.89, and FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 11.71 points to 11,766.21.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index improved 26.39 points to 15,853.01, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.88 of-a-point better at 205.49, while the Plantation Index shed 3.53 points to 6,608.24. ― Bernama
