Bursa Malaysia opens marginally higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday's gain to open marginally higher today on continued buying support in selected heavyweights led by Hong Leong Bank and Maybank.
At 9.010am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,779.24, up 1.81 points, from Thursday's close of 1,777.43.
The key index opened 0.92 of-a-point higher at 1,778.35.
A dealer said sentiment on Bursa Malaysia will likely stay positive on bargain hunting in lower-liners and late buying support for index-linked and speculative counters.
The market breadth was positive as gainers outpaced losers by 139 to 87 with 164 counters unchanged, 1,412 untraded while 40 others were suspended.
Turnover stood at 107.48 million shares worth RM46.88 million.
On the scoreboard, the FBM Emas Index gained 15.11 points to 12,646.62, FBM 70 rose 30.01 points to 14,953.94, FBM Ace chalked up 42.88 points to 6,282.98 and the FBMT100 Index added 15.47 points to 12,292.17.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index rose 2.93 points to 12,835.81.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Index fell 2.62 points to 3,277.65 and the Finance Index rose 33.14 points to 16,879.30.
The Plantation Index fell 7.93 points to 7,926.83.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM9.59, Hong Leong Bank improved 24 sen to RM15.64, Genting Malaysia and Astro each firmed five sen to RM5.61 and RM2.68, respectively, while KL Kepong declined 14 sen to RM24.72, TM went down four sen to RM6.56, PPB fell 10 sen to RM16.78.
TNB and Public Bank were flat at RM14.18 and RM20.38, respectively.
Of the actives, Panpages and Netx were flat at 32 sen and five sen, respectively, Comintel decreased 13 sen to 94 sen, Anzo slid half-a-sen to 15 sen and Perak Transit gained one sen to 31.5 sen.
YGL Convergence Bhd, in a filing to Bursa Malaysia, said trading in its shares has been halted from 9 am today and will resume with effect from 10am today.
The company said it has fixed the issued price at RM0.1450 per placement share which represented a discount of 9.60 per cent to the five-day volume weighted average market price.
Gold futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives were untraded in the early session.
As at 9.37am, June 2017, July 2017, August 2017 and September 2017 were pegged at RM173.55, RM173.70, RM174.20 and RM174.35 a gramme respectively.
Turnover was nil while open interest amounted to 253 contracts.
At 9.30am, physical gold was down 13 sen to RM166.75 per gramme. — Bernama