KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher today in tandem with its Asian peers, tracking the performance of global equity markets and the overnight firmer Wall Street on the back of easing geopolitical tensions between United States and North Korea, dealers said.
At 9.02 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.19 points better at 1,773.27 against Monday’s close of 1,771.08.
The benchmark index opened 1.79 points higher at 1,772.87.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 142 to 41 with 122 counters unchanged, 1,545 untraded and 34 others were suspended.
Alliance DBS Research Sdn Bhd said the market closed lower yesterday with the benchmark index falling marginally to 1,766.37 but saw light follow through selling interest after the opening bell.
This showed that many market participants were unwilling to sell aggressively into the market even though the market environment was seen turning bearish after last Friday’s market sell-off, it said.
“While it may be pre-mature to confirm anything, the risk buying activity we saw was encouraging.
“Analysis of overall market action yesterday, revealed that buying power was stronger thanselling pressure. As such, the FBM KLCI would likely trade above the 1,772.56 level today,” it added.
Of heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB Group added one sen each to RM9.70 and RM6.79, respectively, Public Bank, Sime Darby and Petronas Chemicals gained four sen each to RM20.62 , RM9.44 and RM7.15,respectively, while Tenaga was flat at RM14.22.
Among active counters, Jag and Dagang Nexchange warrant added half -a-sen each to 15.5 sen and 25 sen, respectively, Frontken improved one sen to 34.5 sen and Kronologi Asia gained 2.5 sen 87 sen.
The FBM Emas Index rose 16.02 points to 12,561.63, FBM 70 gained 21.04 points to 14,805.94, FBM Emas Shariah Index added 11.21 points to 12,678.15, FBMT 100 Index increased 15.65 points to 12,231.38 while the FBM Ace jumped 70.92 points to 6,460.83.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index was 22.83 points higher at 16,750.16, the Industrial Index rose 7.15 points to 3,253.05 while the Plantation Index fell 14.43 points to 7,780.92.