KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened higher in early trading today, mirroring Wall Street’s overnight positive performance.
At 9.15am, the benchmark FBM KLCI rose 2.76 points to 1,604.64 compared with 1,601.88 at yesterday’s close.
The index opened 4.67 points higher at 1,606.55.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 275 to 233, while 332 counters were unchanged, 1,265 untraded and 12 others suspended.
Total volume stood at 564.22 million units worth RM333.19 million.
Public Investment Bank, in a note, said US stocks closed higher yesterday after Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen made the case for a large-scale fiscal stimulus to cushion the economic blow from Covid-19 during her confirmation hearing in Washington.
The S&P 500 index gained 0.8%, the Dow Jones rose 0.38%, and Nasdaq improved 1.5%.
However, Malacca Securities said it expects negative sentiment could persist over the near term as investors await the Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) decision on the overnight policy rate (OPR) later in the afternoon; as any further cut in the OPR may cause downward pressure on banking stocks.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose 1 sen to RM8.11, Public Bank added 12 sen to RM21.02, while PetChem was flat at RM7.51.
Tenaga increased 4 sen to RM10.04 and Top Glove improved 8 sen to RM6.21.
Of the actives, HPP rose 18 sen to 54 sen, Yong Tai inched up half-a-sen to 30 sen, while KTG and Sapura Energy were flat at 26.5 and 12.5 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 21.25 points to 11,601.77, the FBMT 100 Index expanded 19.0 points to 11,329.26, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 27.47 points higher at 13,130.82.
The FBM 70 rose 23.24 points to 14,864.09 and the FBM ACE eased 16.18 points to 10,778.19.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index increased 46.18 points to 14,808.39, the Industrial Products and Services Index up 0.1 of-a-point to 179.11, while the Plantation Index eased 17.65 points to 7,271.78. – Bernama, January 20, 2021
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