KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Tuesday, in tandem with overnight gains on Wall St after US President Donald Trump extended an ultimatum to strike Iranian power plants and infrastructure.
At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.97 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 1,723.68 from last Thursday’s close of 1,720.71. The key index opened 11.38 points higher at 1,732.09.
However, the market breadth was negative, with 316 decliners outpacing 94 gainers. A total of 273 counters were unchanged, 2,082 were untraded, and 28 were suspended.
Turnover stood at 157.08 million shares worth RM185.17 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said he believes the local bourse is still well supported, hence he is expecting the index to hover within the 1,715-1,730 range today.
Among heavyweight counters, Public Bank went up three sen to RM4.90, while CIMB added four sen to RM7.91, and IHH Healthcare climbed eight sen to RM9.11. Tenaga Nasional slipped eight sen to RM14.22, while Maybank was flat at RM11.60.
On the most active list, Sunway Healthcare topped up one sen to RM1.91, Zertix AI gave up 2.5 sen to 76 sen, and Bumi Armada inched down half-a-sen to 32.5 sen. TWL inched up half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, and AirAsia X gained four sen to RM1.27.
Among the top gainers, Press Metal Aluminium bounced 12 sen top RM7.89, and Malayan Cement gained 11 sen to RM6.61, while SD Guthrie and Sam Engineering & Equipment added nine sen each to RM5.99 and RM3.19, respectively. Kelington Group jumped eight sen to RM5.08.
Top losers included Nestle, which slid 82 sen to RM99.58, while United Plantations went down 54 sen to RM34.28, and Tradeplus Shariah Gold Tracker slid 42 sen to RM5.34.
Hong Leong Industries trimmed 40 sen to RM16.70, and Hong Leong Bank slipped 32 sen to RM22.56.
On the index board, the FBM Top 100 Index fell 19.27 points to 12,369.52, the FBM Emas Index dropped 24.18 points to 12,514.62, and the FBM ACE Index declined 23.93 points to 4,380.36.
The FBM 70 Index reduced 208.89 points to 16,934.09, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 13.15 points to 12,254.15.
By sector, the Financial Services Index slipped 38.20 points to 20,640.92, while the Energy Index lost 9.26 points to 784.55, but the Plantation Index rose 17.08 points to 8,705.98.
The Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.23 of a point to 183.39.
-- BERNAMA
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