BURSA Malaysia opened higher this morning, fuelled by the positive sentiment on Wall Street last Friday and China’s economic recovery theme.

At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 3.31 points to 1,500.86  from Friday’s close of 1,497.55.

The key index opened 2.20 points higher at 1,499.75.    

On the broader market, gainers led decliners 199 to 116, while 280 counters were unchanged, 1,623 untraded, and 54 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 217.47 million units worth RM74.70 million.

The FBM KLCI ended marginally below 1,500 last week, dragged by the weakness on the banking sector as Bank Negara Malaysia maintained the overnight policy rate at 2.75 per cent.

“However, with the positive sentiment from Wall Street, we believe the buying interest may spill over to the broader market, providing an upside towards lower liners, especially in the technology sector,” Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said in a note today.

Global stock markets could see further recovery on the back of decent US economic data, coupled with the continuing recovery theme from China.

On the sector in focus today, the brokerage pointed out that the oil and gas stocks could rise until the upcoming reporting season amid the firmer Brent oil price.

“Apart from that, the news that Malaysia’s prime minister visiting Singapore today has sparked speculation that there would be discussions on the high-speed rail project (between the two countries),” it added.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank and Public Bank added three sen each to RM8.77 and RM4.28, respectively. Petronas Chemicals and CIMB both advanced one sen at RM8.49 and RM5.75, respectively, while Tenaga Nasional dropped three sen to RM9.52.

As for the actives, Nylex accumulated 5.5 sen at 60 sen, Borneo Oil was up half-a-sen at two sen, ATA IMS added 3.5 sen at 44 sen, and DGB Asia was trading flat at 1.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 23.56 points to 10,916.92, the FBMT 100 Index bagged 23.75 points to 10,587.66, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index perked up 19.86 points to 11,197.41.

The FBM 70 Index rose 32.71 points to 13,792.55 while the FBM ACE Index increased 23.45 points to 5,754.68.  

Sector-wise,  the Industrial Products and Services Index improved by 0.48 point to 191.25, the Energy Index added 4.83 points to 885.59, and the Plantation Index climbed 27.05 points to 6,868.28. The Financial Services Index gained 49.03 points to 16,519.22.   — BERNAMA