Bursa Malaysia rebounds to open higher

Bursa Malaysia rebounded from yesterday’s losses to open slightly higher today on renewed buying interest in selected heavyweights, amid a mixed start on regional markets, dealers said.

At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,824.10, up 2.50 points, from yesterday’s close of 1,821.60.It opened 1.79 points higher at 1,823.39.

Overall market breadth was slightly positive with gainers leading losers 142 to 121, while 211 counters were unchanged, 1,386 untraded and 33 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 190.75 million shares worth RM86.95 million.

Kenanga Research expected the benchmark index to move towards the resistance level of 1,840 points and 1,866 points, while any near-term weakness is likely to be short-term in nature.

“Immediate support is seen at the psychological level of 1,800 points and 1,793 points next, where investors can look forward to buying on dips,” it said in a research note today.

Among heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.86, Public Bank slipped two sen to RM20.86, while TNB rose 12 sen to RM15.72, with Petronas Chemicals and CIMB Bank up two sen each to RM8.19 and RM6.82, respectively.

Of the actives, Sumatec earned half-a-sen to 10 sen, UMW O&G and Perisai Petroleum were flat at 34.5 sen and 6.5 sen, while Sino Hua-An fell one sen to 46 sen.

The FBM Emas Index was 10.95 points higher at 13,151.05, the FBMT 100 Index rose 10.64 points to 12,815.42, but the FBM 70 shed 9.87 points to 16,374.26.

The FBM Emas Syariah Index went up 23.80 points to 13,591.17, but the FBM Ace eased 0.95 of-a-point to 6,682.31.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index improved 5.53 points to 17,195.59 and the Plantation Index declined 10.76 points to 8,058.29, while the Industrial Index advanced 15.03 points to 3,327.68.

The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM162.85 per gramme, down 0.61 sen from RM163.46 at 5pm yesterday.