Bursa Malaysia Opens Higher, Tracking Wall Street Gains

KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Tuesday, mirroring Wall Street’s positive overnight performance amid expectations of spillover buying interest into the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI).

At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose by 7.48 points to 1,752.79 from Monday’s close of 1,745.31. The benchmark index opened 3.14 points firmer at 1,748.45.

Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 206 to 184. A total of 356 counters were unchanged, 1,919 untraded, and 11 suspended.

Turnover stood at 320.30 million shares worth RM166.26 million.

In a note, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said it expects investors to continue focusing on technology-related stocks such as Oppstar and SkyeChip, after the Ministry of Economy announced a strategic partnership with Arm Ltd to strengthen the nation’s integrated circuit (IC) design capabilities.

“With an anticipated increase in the volume of high-end local chips, other Automated Test Equipment (ATE)-related companies are poised to benefit from this partnership tailwind,” it said.

Yesterday, Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said the collaboration with Arm Ltd to enhance IC design capabilities signals Malaysia’s transition into a new phase of semiconductor industry development.

He said Malaysia has long been recognised for its strengths in chip assembly, testing, and packaging, adding that the nation must now move beyond back-end activities into front-end capabilities, from manufacturing to designing, developing intellectual properties, and creating homegrown technologies.

During the opening session, heavyweights Maybank rose four sen to RM11.22, Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional added two sen to RM4.87 and RM14.74, respectively, CIMB increased six sen to RM7.99 and IHH Healthcare was three sen firmer at RM8.97.

Among the most active stocks, Oppstar gained 15.5 sen to 83.5 sen, GIIB added four sen to 18 sen and SMRT increased 1.5 sen to 29.5 sen, while Top Glove fell 2.5 sen to 83 sen and Zetrix Ai slid one sen to 84.5 sen. 

Top gainers Nestle was higher by RM1.20 at RM102.40, UMS Integration rose 84 sen to RM7.96, Malaysian Pacific increased 78 sen to RM41.78, Petronas Dagangan added 34 sen to RM20.92 and Allianz Malaysia expanded by 30 sen to RM21.58.

As for the top losers, Hextar and Hong Leong Industries lost six sen to RM1.15 and RM18.84, respectively, PLB Engineering slipped five sen to 70 sen, and both IOI Properties and Frontken eased four sen to RM4.42 and RM4.57, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 35.25 points to 12,966.85, the FBM Top 100 Index gained 38.24 points to 12,809.19, the FBM Emas Shariah Index grew 25.32 points to 12,869.46, and the FBM ACE Index climbed 4.90 points to 4,680.70, while the FBM Mid 70 Index edged down 15.21 points to 18,546.25.

By sector, the Financial Services Index jumped 84.99 points to 20,391.17, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 1.04 points to 196.80, the Energy Index was 0.33 of a point higher at 807.51, and the Plantation Index gained 9.71 points to 8,847.79.

-- BERNAMA