Bursa Malaysia Opens Higher On Global Tech Earnings Spillover
KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened firmer on Thursday, tracking regional peers, as upbeat earnings from global technology (tech) companies spilt over to local tech stocks.
At 9.11 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 3.42 points to 1714.79 from Wednesday's close of 1,711.37.
The benchmark index opened 0.20 of a point higher at 1,714.38.
Across the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 203 to 134, while 315 counters were unchanged, 2,100 untraded and 23 suspended.
Turnover totalled 313.06 million shares worth RM101.23 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said Alphabet Inc posted stronger-than-expected results for its 2Q FY2026, driven primarily by robust growth in Google Cloud.
Alphabet is a multinational technology conglomerate and Google’s parent company.
The brokerage firm said Alphabet’s capital expenditure (capex) nearly doubled year-on-year (y-o-y) to US$44.9 billion due to investments in AI, pushing its quarterly free cash flow into negative for the first time to US$5.9 billion.
“Following Alphabet Inc’s positive capex outlook, we believe the positive effect may spill over to local technology stocks,” it said in a note.
Among the tech gainer stocks are KESM Industries, which rose 15 sen to RM4.40, Kelington inched up nine sen to RM8.17, and Mi Technovation was seven sen higher at RM5.76.
Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank and Public Bank were flat at RM10.94 and RM5.15, respectively. Tenaga Nasional gained two sen to RM14.30, CIMB added one sen to RM7.67 and IHH Healthcare firmed six sen to RM8.39.
Among active stocks, AIMAX was flat at 1.5 sen, Kinergy Advancement and Velesto Energy were half-a-sen higher each at 39.5 sen and 26.5 sen, respectively. Cape EMS put on one sen to 29.5 sen, but Zetrix AI edged down half-a-sen to 71 sen.
Among other top gainers, Hong Leong Industries improved 10 sen to RM18.10, Petronas Chemical grew nine sen to RM4.81, PPB Group advanced seven sen to RM9.47, Sarawak Plantation ticked up six sen to RM4.38, and Telekom Malaysia perked five sen to RM7.70.
Decliners were led by United Plantations, which fell RM1.34 to RM32.70, Petronas Gas shed 16 sen to RM17.52, and Press Metal Aluminium slipped six sen to RM7.99. Spritzer and Kuala Lumpur Kepong dropped four sen each to RM2.86 and RM20.88, respectively.
Among the broader indices, the FBM Emas Index improved 20.74 points to 12,676.70, the FBMT Top 100 Index increased 18.38 points to 12,498.35, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went up 25.43 points to 12,523.13.
The FBM ACE Index garnered 9.98 points to 4,971.0, but the FBM Mid 70 Index shrank 1.361 points to 17,955.45.
By sector, the Financial Services Index climbed 4.87 points to 20,211.98, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.65 of a point to 189.01, and the Energy Index put on 3.57 points to 777.98, but the Plantation Index shed 37.18 points to 9,284.06.
-- BERNAMA