BURSA MALAYSIA OPENS HIGHER ON ROBUST DOMESTIC ECONOMIC GROWTH

By Danni Haizal Danial Donald

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Thursday, mirroring gains in regional markets, as sentiment improved following robust domestic economic growth.

The market was closed on Feb 17 and Feb 18 for the Chinese New Year holidays.

At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 6.83 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 1,748.09, compared with Monday’s close of 1,741.26.

The benchmark index had opened 6.82 points higher at 1,748.08.

The broader market was positive with gainers thumping losers 186 to 112, while 298 counters were unchanged, 2,141 counters untraded, and 11 suspended.

Market turnover stood at 108.90 million shares worth RM77.35 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng said Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index started on a firmer footing, rising 0.52 per cent to 26,705.94 points, and traders remain optimistic that the uptrend will sustain.

“On the home front, the FBM KLCI daily volume remains low at around 1.80 billion shares during the recent close, clearly indicating the absence of retail participation.

“For today, we expect the index maintain its climb and trend in the 1,740-1,750 range, underpinned by Malaysia’s solid fourth quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.3 per cent that exceeded expectations,” he told Bernama.

Thong noted that Wall Street ended higher, predominantly led by tech stocks, following the release of the United States Federal Reserve’s recent policy meeting minutes, where most participants agreed to maintain rates at current level.

Among index heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB gained six sen each to RM12 and RM8.44, respectively. Public Bank rose one sen to RM5.06 and IHH Healthcare advanced 11 sen to RM8.93, while Tenaga Nasional dipped 10 sen to RM14.32.

On the most active list, TWL and Hubline were flat at 2.5 sen and 3.5 sen, respectively. Zetrix AI added three sen to 88 sen, while OCR Group eased half-a-sen to 4.5 sen and Magma inched up half-a-sen to 32.5 sen.

As for the top gainers, Malaysian Pacific Industries added 38 sen to RM30.36, Petronas Dagangan increased 24 sen to RM20.86, Hong Leong Bank bagged 14 sen to RM24.10, PPB garnered 12 sen to RM11.16 and IOI Properties edged up 11 sen to RM3.62.

Meanwhile, aside from Tenaga Nasional, top decliners also include United Plantations, which fell 20 sen to RM29.62, while IGB slipped 15 sen to RM3.65, 99 Speed Mart slid seven sen to RM3.66, and ITMax eased three sen to RM4.91.

On the index board, the FBM Top 100 Index expanded 51.54 points to 12,630.76, the FBM Emas Index rose 51.18 points to 12,807.73, the FBM Mid 70 Index increased 82.33 points to 17,680.92 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index recovered 49.73 points to 12,358.83, while the FBM ACE Index shed 6.53 points to 4,766.26.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index surged 88.09 points to 21,446.51, the Plantation Index edged up 14.07 points to 8,374.42, the Energy Index gained 5.21 points to 760.03, and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.41 points higher at 177.67.

-- BERNAMA