Bursa Malaysia opens marginally higher as foreign buying emerges

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened marginally higher in early trade today as foreign buying emerged, mirroring a bounce on Wall Street as some bargain hunting appeared following Tuesday's sell-off as prospects of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve may be delayed.

At 9.06 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 1.66 points to 1,530.99 from Wednesday's close of 1,529.33.

The barometer index opened 0.04 of-a-point easier at 1,529.29.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 159 to 105, while 215 counters were unchanged, 1,820 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 167.66 million units worth RM54.48 million.

Rakuten Trade head of research Kenny Yee said the FBM KLCI closed slightly lower yesterday, mainlyattributed to the weak performance on Wall Street overnight.

"Nonetheless, we noticed that the market undertone remains solid and is still well supported byforeign buying. In view of the uncertainty in the US, we believe funds will continue to flow into the regionwhereby value propositions are still in abundance," he said in a research note.

Yee noted that the index is expected to hover within the 1,530 to 1,540 range today.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank gained three sen to RM9.43, CIMB earned one sen to RM6.38, while Public Bank, Tenaga Nasional, and Petronas Chemicals were all flat at RM4.40, RM11.06 and RM6.77, respectively.

As for the actives, TWL advanced half-a-sen to four sen, Hong Seng was flat at two sen, Wentel improved 1.5 sen at 31 sen, and Master Tec rose one sen to 42.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 14.55 points higher at 11,373.41, the FBMT 100 Index climbed 15.63 points to 11,030.91, the FBM 70 Index put on 36.86 points to 15,351.79, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 4.30 points to 11,387.70, and the FBM ACE Index expanded 1.08 points to 4,843.67.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index jumped 36.49 points to 17,191.86 while the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.31 of-a-point to 174.40.

The Property Index went up 2.09 points to 924.02, while the Plantation Index fell 7.15 points to 7,228.30 and the Energy Index erased 1.58 points to 889.13.

-- BERNAMA