Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Thursday as investors positioned ahead of Bank Negara Malaysia’s interest rate decision later today, with the benchmark FBM KLCI gaining 4.34 points or 0.25% to 1,713.08 as at 9:19am.
The index opened at 1,711.16 and moved between 1,710.37 and 1,713.78 in early trading, with buying interest extending across most major indices.
The FBM70 rose 0.53% to 17,879.24, while the FBM Small Cap Index gained 0.59% to 16,101.00. The FBM EMAS was up 0.34% at 12,670.31 and the FBM ACE climbed 0.61% to 5,193.00.
Sector-wise, the Energy Index led the broader market with a 0.80% gain to 808.35. The Construction Index added 0.64% to 304.52, while Consumer Products and Services rose 0.22% to 486.43.
The financial-focused F4GBM index gained 0.34% to 1,028.54, while the FBM100 rose 0.33% to 12,476.02.
Among the most active counters, Ingenieur Gudang was unchanged at 4 sen with 515.81 million shares traded, followed by Focus Dynamics at 0.5 sen with 255.55 million shares.
Supermax gained 4.5 sen or 13.24% to 38.5 sen, with 158.39 million shares traded, making it one of the stronger active counters in early trade.
Nihsin Industries fell 0.5 sen to 26 sen, while GIIB Holdings was unchanged at 50.5 sen.
Among the top gainers, UWC climbed 19 sen to RM6.52, while PetGas rose 18 sen to RM17.76. Hume Industries gained 14 sen to RM3, while Solarvest added 13 sen to RM3.18 and KGB rose 11 sen to RM8.68.
On the losing side, Kuala Lumpur Kepong fell 20 sen to RM22.50. Sarawak Oil Palms slipped 7 sen to RM5.89, while Heineken Malaysia declined 6 sen to RM15.92.
Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing also fell 6 sen to RM3.40, while Apex Healthcare was down 5 sen at 60 sen.
