KL shares open higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher in range-bound trading ahead of the tabling of Budget 2017 at 4pm today by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, a dealer said.
At 9.09am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.03 points higher at 1,668.21, against Thursday's close of 1,667.18.
The index opened 0.18 point higher at 1,668.03.
Gainers trounced losers 109 to 86, while 161 counters were unchanged, 1,311 untraded and 18 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 117.63 million shares worth RM34.12 million.
The dealer said market players will now focus on the announcement of Budget 2017, which is set to provide some key catalysts to the local bourse.
AllianceDBS Research in a note said yesterday's slightly higher performance was within expectations, but market participants were unwilling to rush into the game.
"A buying action in the selling supply area is often seen not a good decision because it could end up losing when the professional traders and investors begin to unload.
"Given such a market scenario, the focus of the game would be on the imbalanced supply and demand relationship.
"A change of market direction at a level where demand and supply is out of balance would be closely observed," it said.
The research house said a crossover of 1,672 should see the market gearing towards the 1,692 level.
"The analysis of overall market action yesterday revealed that buying power was stronger than selling pressure.
"As such, the FBM KLCI would likely trade above the 1,671.49 level today," said the research house.
Of the heavyweights, TNB dwindled two sen to RM14.30, but Public Bank gained two sen to RM19.80, Maybank added one sen to RM7.61 and Sime Darby eased one sen to RM7.95.
Petronas Chemicals and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM6.95 and RM6.42 respectively.
Of the losers, Hong Leong contracted eight sen to RM13.20, UEM lost seven sen to RM3.28, Hap Seng weakened five sen to RM7.70, KESM Industries erased three sen to RM9.75 and Capitaland and Jerasia each shrank two sen to RM1.52 and 67 sen respectively.
The FBM Emas Index added 6.11 points to 11,796.31, but the FBM Emas Syariah Index lost 3.01 points to 12,441.92 and the FBMT 100 Index was 5.55 points higher at 11,495.49, with the FBM 70 increasing 1.10 points to 13,854.52.
However, the FBM Ace reduced 20.20 points to 5,123.17. The Plantation Index increased 6.25 points to 7,924.11, but the Industrial Index declined 3.30 points to 3,131.19 and the Finance Index increased 21.72
points to 14,366.41.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM164.90 per gramme, down 39 sen from RM165.29 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama