KUALA LUMPUR: The local benchmark index opened higher on Wednsday, rising 1.31 points in early trade to 1,761.30 points
Turnover was 132.33 million shares with a value of RM61.5mil. There were 165 gainers to 79 decliners and 185 counters unchanged.
Most Asian markets opened higher despite a dip in Wall Street overnight as Apple and its parts suppliers weakened on reports of soft iPhone X demand, leading tech shares lower.
On the local bourse, Petronas Gas added 10 sen to RM17.10, Genting rose five sen to RM9.05 and Genting Malaysia gained three sen to RM5.58.
Stocks that slipped included IHH Healthcare, dropping four sen to RM5.79, Petronas Chemicals falling two sen to RM7.58 and PPB Group, slipping two sen to RM17.56.
On the wider market, advancers included Sapura Energy
, which rose one sen to 72.5 sen and DNex, which moved higher by 0.5 sen to 49.5 sen.
Hibiscus is in the spotlight today on news that it is moving closer to completing the North Sabah Enhanced Oil Recovery production sharing contract. The counter gained two sen to 87 sen.
Among laggards, Amway slipped seven sen to RM7.30, F&N slipped four sen to RM26.66 and Hartalega fell four sen to RM10.80.
In commodities, oil markets retreated after surging to 2.5-year highs in the previous session, which saw US crude touching US$60 a barrel following an explosion at a Libyan crude pipeline.
On Wednesday, US light crude dipped 26 cents to US$56.71 a barrel while Brent crude dropped 37 cents to US$66.65 a barrel.
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