KL shares open slightly higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened marginally higher this morning but eased momentarily before picking up momentum again.
At 9am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 0.92 of-a-point better at 1,756.55 but retreated slightly before rebounding 0.43 of-a-point to 1,756.06 at 9.05am.
The index finished at 1,755.63 on Thursday.
Dealers said the market was undergoing a consolidation phase in the absence of fresh leads.
Maybank Investment Share Manager Teng Sew Ching said with mixed US markets overnight and uncertainty over European Central Bank's tightening measures, the local bourse was expected to remain choppy.
On the broader market, advancers outpaced losers 125 to 70 while 160 counters remained unchanged with 1,472 untraded and 21 others were suspended.
Turnover amounted to 100.52 million shares worth RM36.21 million.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM9.63, both Tenaga and CIMB added four sen each to RM14.12 and RM6.35, respectively, while PBBank and Sime were flat at RM20.36 and RM9.56, respectively.
Of actives, SterPro and Reach Energy's warrants were up half-a-sen each at 16.5 sen and 9.5 sen, respectively, Vivocom was flat at 14 sen but its warrant edged up half-a-sen to 5.5 sen.
The FBM Emas Index gained 7.05 points to 12,523.77, the FBM Ace was 1.01 points better at 6,810.03 but the FBMT100 Index gained 6.18 points better to 12,165.14.
Meanwhile, the FBM Emas Syariah Index increased 2.84 points to 12,706.60 and the FBM 70 advanced 19.81 points to 14,924.22.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index perked 4.52 points to 7,876.02, the Finance Index rose 19.75 points to 16,675.08 and the Industrial Index added 3.15 points to 3,269.58.
The physical price of gold as at 9.30am stood at RM165.95 per gramme, up 69 sen from RM165.26 at 5pm yesterday. — Bernama