KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher in early trading Friday following the announcement by the US' Federal Reserve to launch an aggressive plan to boost the US' economy, dealers said.

At 9.35 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 10.17 points to 1,638.57 after opening 6.48 points higher at 1,634.88.

A dealer said the Federal Reserve would buy US$40 billion of agency mortgage debt per month and pledged to maintain it until the country's unemployment rate improved.

On the back of that news, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 206.51 points to 13,539.86 at the closing bell overnight.

The Standard and Poor's 500 Index surged 23.43 points 1,459.99 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 41.51 points to 3,155.83.
"The plan, also known as the Third Round of Quantitative Easing (QE3), is what the market keenly awaited and hoped for," a dealer said.

Back home, investors have reacted positively with all indices traded in positive territory led by palm oil plantation stocks except FBM Ace stocks.

The Finance Index rose 89.58 points to 14,688.19, the Plantation Index jumped 30.62 points to 8,411.62 and the Industrial Index advanced 17.5 points to 2,816.3.

The FBM Emas Index gained 73.311 points to 11,139.62, the FBM Mid 70 Index gained 93.02 points to 12,042.34 but the FBM ACE Index slipped 5.46 points to 4,354.74.

Gainers led losers 292 to 61 while 140 counters were unchanged, 1,130 untraded and 17 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 134.2 million shares worth RM168.83 million.

Among active counters, AirAsia rose 13 sen to RM3.08, Asiaep Resources fell 2.5 sen to half sen and Ingenuity Solutions slid half sen to 18.5 sen.

Heavyweights, Maybank added three sen to RM9.30, Sime Darby gained two sen to RM9.83 and CIMB advanced10 sen to RM7.68.
-- BERNAMA