Bursa Malaysia opens marginally higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened marginally higher today on mild bargain hunting despite weaker regional sentiment due to persistent trade tensions and ahead of tomorrow's tariff deadline on imports from China by the US.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 1.02 points higher at 1,689.47 from Wednesday's close of 1,688.45.
The index opened 1.77 points higher at 1,690.22 and a dealer said its recent movements showed signs of a rebound, which would remain valid, for as long as the recent low of 1,655 points is not broken.
"Immediate support is set at 1,655 points, which was the low of June 28, while immediate resistance is at the June 4 low of 1,735 points, he added.
Among heavyweights, Maybank bagged two sen to RM9 and Tenaga gained six sen to RM14.46, while Petronas Chemicals and CIMB were flat at RM8.45 and RM5.46 respectively.
Public Bank lost six sen to RM22.92.
Among actives, Barakah gained 1.5 sen to 14 sen, Berjaya Corp climbed half-a-sen to 30.5 sen and Perdana Pertroleum gained one sen to 20 sen.
Ucrest and PUC were flat at 35 sen and 18.5 sen respectively.
The FBM Emas Index went up 7.57 points to 11,957.9, the FBM70 was 4.97 points firmer at 14,664.21 and the FBMT100 Index improved 6.37 points to 11,754.82.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index edged up 22.98 points to 12,142.37 and the FBM Ace Index was up 15.05 points to 5,287.37.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index declined 34.359 points to 16,531.33 and the Plantation Index lost 15.65 points to 7,480.83, while the Industrial Index was flat at 3,119.78.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 108 to 64, while 159 counters were unchanged, 1,536 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Volume stood at 100.66 million units valued at RM38.65 million.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM158.01 per gramme, up one sen from RM158.00 at 5.00pm yesterday. — Bernama