Malaysian shares were slightly higher in early trade today on fresh interest in selected heavyweights and lower liners, a dealer said. He said the market might stage a technical rebound today to re-test the 1,170-1,173 resistance level. At 9.15am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index went up 0.57 of a point to 1,165.05 after opening 0.73 of a point lower at 1,163.75.
The Industrial Index increased 1.81 points to 2,563.84, the Technology Index advanced 0.12 of a point to 16.32, the Plantation Index added 30.55 points to 5,654.23 but the Finance Index shed 30.16 points to 9,445.54.
The FBM Top 100 increased 5.42 points to 7,641.08, the FBM70 added 12.02 points to 7,744.30, the FBMMesdaq Index went down 11.57 points to 4,098.59 and the FBM2BRD Index was 19.32 points higher at 5,190.28.
Gainers beat losers by 109 to 41 while 100 counters were unchanged, 982 untraded and 32 suspended. Turnover stood at 46.432 million shares worth RM48.917 million. Among the actives, KNM Group and Jotech inched up half a sen each to 87 sen and 9.0 sen respectively.
Tebrau Teguh increased one sen to 83.5 sen. Handal Resources jumped 23.5 sen to 95.5 sen after making a debut on the Second Board with a 12-sen premium at 90 sen today. Conglomerate Sime Darby increased five sen to RM8.15, finance heavyweight Maybank decreased five sen to RM6.50, Bumiputra-Commerce went down 10 sen to RM10.10 and power giant Tenaga was flat at RM8.10. -- Bernama