BURSA Malaysia opened higher today in line with an overnight rally in Wall Street and oil prices.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KCLI (FBM KLCI) rose 5.13 points to 1,402.56 compared to 1,397.25 at yesterday’s close.
The index opened 6.22 points higher at 1,403.47.
Market breadth was positive with gainers surpassing losers 353 to 74, while 215 counters were unchanged, 1,251 untraded and 35 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 645.78 million worth RM204.10 mil.
Wall Street staged a remarkable rebound reversing a lacklustre opening to close on a high, boosted by gains in banking shares, coupled with the higher crude oil prices.
Rakuten Trade Research said the Dow Jones Index Average was up by almost 380 points to 23,625 despite the latest news of the bleak unemployment outlook in the US.
“On the local front, we can expect some consolidation for the FBM KLCI today following a solid performance over the last few days with 1,400 being the immediate resistance,” it said in a note.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said investors would keep an eye on the barrage of corporate earnings releases.
In the meantime, oil and gas players may see renewed trading interest following the overnight rise in crude oil prices after International Energy Agency said there are signs of a recovery in the market despite demand is likely to drops this month.
Oil and gas-related counters on the uptrend in early trade today, heavyweights – MISC rose nine sen to RM7.89, PetChem added five sen to RM5.45, Dialog and Petronas Gas was four sen better at RM3.37 and RM15.08 respectively, while Petronas Dagangan was flat at RM19.72.
In addition, glove makers rallies continued with Hartalega added 29 sen to RM9.48 and Top Glove increased 20 sen to RM10.50.
As for financial, Public Bank went up eight sen to RM15.50 while Maybank was two sen higher at RM7.42.
Actives counters, DGB Asia was unchanged at 2.5 sen, Valesto was half-a-sen higher at 14 sen, while XOX and KNM improved on sen each to 5.5 sen and 16 sen respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index expanded 60.27 points to 9,867.82, the FBMT 100 Index gained 48.61 points to 9,710.23, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 71.82 points to 11,124.17, the FBM ACE climbed 81.71 points to 5,388.22 and the FBM 70 strengthened 108.62 points to 11,984.95.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index bagged 39.86 points to 12,255.01, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.52 of-a-point to 120.01, but the Plantation Index went down 2.77 points to 6,177.71. –
