Bursa Malaysia opens higher on bullish sentiment
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher today on bullish sentiment following the release of a stronger set of third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data last week, a dealer said.
At 9.17am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.19 points firmer at 1,724.85 from Friday's close of 1,721.66.
The index opened 2.11 points stronger at 1,723.77 at 9am.
RHB Investment Bank said Malaysia's real GDP grew by a stronger 6.2%, year-on-year, in the third quarter on account of stronger external activities and overall domestic demand.
"Due to the stronger-than-expected growth in the third quarter, we lift our GDP forecast for 2017 to 5.6% from 5.3% previously," it said in a research note.
Public Investment Bank, in a separate note, said the re-acceleration of global trade also gave the country a welcome boost as the third quarter net exports grew 1.7% year-on-year.
The bank also revised upwards its 2017 growth projection to 5.6% from 5.3%, previously.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index was 22.65 points firmer at 12,439.57, FBMT 100 Index advanced 22.319 points to 12,085.6, FBM Emas Syariah Index perked 27.96 points to 12,885.82 and FBM 70 climbed 28.08 points to 15,339.23.
The FBM Ace was 14.33 points better at 6,577.25.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index was 14.18 points better at 3,152.15, the Finance Index improved 1.81 points to 16,053.18 but the Plantation Index lost 16.52 points to 7,892.01.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 158 to 139 while 223 counters remained unchanged with 1,356 untraded and 21 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 291.63 million shares worth RM81.15 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank eased one sen to RM9.21 while Public Bank was flat at RM20.38.
TNB added two sen to RM14.86, Sime Darby rose nine sen to RM9.06 and Petronas Chemicals gained four sen to RM7.33.
Among actives, Sumatec and Vivocom were flat at 5.5 sen and 13 sen, respectively.
Kejuruteraan Asastera lost one sen to 29 sen and Trive Property and DGB Asia slipped half-a-sen each to 7.5 sen and 13.5 sen, respectively.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM167.04 per gramme, up RM1.07 from RM165.97 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama