KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, rebounded from its previous two days of losses, despite the weaker overnight performance on Wall Street.
The US equities pulled back from the prior session’s record closing highs as investors are cautious over upcoming quarterly earnings reports, while awaiting the Federal Reserve’s economic outlook.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 6.47 points to 1,585.38 from Tuesday’s close of 1,578.91.
The index opened 5.47 points higher at 1,584.38.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 207 to 185, while 311 counters were unchanged, 1,429 untraded and 10 others suspended.
Total volume stood at 265.88 million shares worth RM124.10 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the FBM KLCI may continue to trend sideways without any significant market leads, taking cues from the overnight Wall Street.
“The FBM KLCI extended its losses for the second straight session after Sri Lanka banned imports of palm oil. However, we expect bargain-hunting to emerge in the near term amid higher crude palm oil price.
“The local bourse barometer index was trended lower in line with most regional peers. With technical indicators turning negative, we envisaged resistance around 1,600 to 1,625, while support is set along 1,550 to 1,560,” it noted
For sector in focus, the research house said given the weaker sentiment, traders are expected to focus on the recent trading momentum within the property and construction sector.
“The digital payment industry should also gain some interest with the ongoing implementation of the Retail Digitalisation Initiative (ReDI) framework. Besides, traders may put the recovery-theme stocks such as aviation and REITs on their radar following more positive news flows on the economic recovery,” it added.
Of the heavyweights, Public Bank and Tenaga gained two sen each to RM4.24 and RM10.20, respectively, Petronas Chemicals added two sen to RM7.97, IHH Healthcare improved one sen to RM5.31, while Maybank was flat at RM8.31.
Among the active counters, Connectcounty and Matang eased one sen each to 22.5 sen and 11.5 sen, respectively, Zelan added 1.5 sen to 13.5 sen, while MTouche and Focus Dynamic warrant were flat at 3.5 sen and one sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was up 37,30 points to 11,755.92, the FBM 70 rose 13.20 points to 15,810.76, the FBMT 100 increased 36.73 points to 11,409.15, the FBM Emas Shariah advanced 35.81 points to 13,011.12, and the FBM ACE expanded 43.28 points to 9,674.43.
Sector-wise, the Plantation Index went up 20.03 points to 6,959.66, and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.12 of-a-point to 193.26, and the Financial Services Index gained 67.06 points to 15,307.42.
— Bernama
