KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was on firm ground on Tuesday as buying interest in blue chips continued despite Wall Street's mixed overnight performance.
At 9.45 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was up 6.83 points to 1,645.79 from Monday's close of 1,638.96.
On the broader market, gainers edged past losers 337 to 290, while 359 counters were unchanged.
Market volume was at 646.5 million. Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said trading on the local bourse was lacklustre yesterday despite the FBM KLCI closing on a positive note at almost the 1,640 mark.
Thong said buying on blue chips continued from the inflows of foreign funds, possibly taking advantage of the appreciating Ringgit which strengthened to almost a two year high at RM4.35/USD1. "As such, we expect the index to hover within the 1,635-1.645 range today. "Meanwhile, escalating violence in the middle-east saw crude oil prices higher as the Brent crude jumped above the USD81 per barrel," he said.
Among the active counters, Velesto Holdings Bhd inched up half-a-sen to 22 sen, Elridge Energy Holdings Berhad bagged 1.5 sen to 46.5 sen, MMAG Holdings Bhd increased one sen to 33 sen, while Top Glove Corporation Bhd eased one sen to 95 sen.Ends