Bursa Malaysia rises at open on buying in heavyweights despite Wall Street slide

KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, underpinned by buying in selected heavyweight stocks despite weaker overnight performance on Wall Street.

At 9.25 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 8.82 points to 1,718.81 from Tuesday’s close of 1,709.99, after opening 12.36 points firmer at 1,722.35.

Market breadth was positive, with gainers outpacing losers 313 to 289. A total of 363 counters were unchanged, 1,771 untraded and 34 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 690.97 million shares worth RM335.54 million.

The market was closed on Wednesday for the Awal Muharram public holiday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended lower as sellers took control following Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s first meeting, with markets anticipating a potential rate hike this year.

He said buying in the domestic market was broad-based, though the focus was mainly on index-linked laggards, particularly telecommunications stocks.

“Encouraged by positive sentiment in West Asia, we expect the index to maintain its uptrend and hover within the 1,705-1,720 range today,” he told Bernama.

Among heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank rose four sen to RM11.20 and RM5.09, respectively. Tenaga Nasional added two sen to RM14.58, CIMB was seven sen firmer at RM7.85, and IHH Healthcare gained five sen to RM8.84.

Among active stocks, Hong Seng and Zetrix AI fell half-a-sen to one sen and 79.5 sen, respectively. Tanco gained 2.5 sen to 17.5 sen, while Pentech slipped one sen to 30.5 sen and HHRG was flat at eight sen. Newly listed Sum Technology traded at 42.5 sen, up 14.5 sen from its IPO price.

Among top gainers, Hong Leong Industries rose 40 sen to RM18.88, Allianz added 38 sen to RM21.38, Dutch Lady edged up 24 sen to RM32.50 and Batu Kawan increased 20 sen to RM20.80.

Top losers included Malaysian Pacific Industries, which slipped 82 sen to RM48.48, Paragon, down 68 sen to RM1.61, Nestle, which lost 66 sen to RM96.14, and UWC, which fell 15 sen to RM6.05.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index added 45.57 points to 12,707.75, while the FBM Top 100 Index gained 49.45 points to 12,548.84 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index edged up 29.87 points to 12,504.61.

The FBM Mid 70 Index rose 7.30 points to 18,117.87, while the FBM ACE Index gained 4.51 points to 4,781.50.

By sector, the Financial Services Index surged 129.29 points to 20,414.05, the Plantation Index rose 10.59 points to 8,789.96, and the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.40 of-a-point to 188.97, while the Energy Index declined 2.66 points to 761.97. — Bernama