KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened higher in early trade today, rebounding from last week’s losses – taking the cue from the stronger performance on Wall Street on Friday despite the United States inflation fear.
At 9.06am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 3.52 points to 1,492.40 compared with 1,488.88 at Friday’s close.
The index opened 3.0 points higher at 1,491.88.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 141 to 123, while 198 counters were unchanged, 1,833 untraded and 21 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 168.19 mil units valued at RM79.72 mil.
With concerns over the Omicron variant dampening the economic recovery appearing to subside, improvements in both the stock and commodity markets are expected, said Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd.
“Investors will be waiting for the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting this week for further clues on the monetary policies going forward,” it said.
On the commodities segment, it noted that crude palm oil (CPO) prices stood above RM4,800, while crude oil price hovered above the US$75 (RM315.60) per barrel mark.
“For sectors in focus, as both CPO and crude oil stabilised over the past week, traders can expect to focus on the oil and gas and plantation sectors in the near term.
“Meanwhile, the technology sector may also be uplifted by the positive performance on Wall Street,” the brokerage firm said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank added five sen to RM8.17. Petronas Chemicals and CIMB Group gained one sen each to RM8.43 and RM5.19, respectively.
IHH Healthcare rose nine sen to RM6.67 while Public Bank was flat at RM3.99.
Of the actives, Impiana Hotels edged up half-a-sen to 9.5 sen.
Dataprep improved increased 10 sen to RM1.19, Sedania improved 3.5 sen to 62.5 sen, while Daya Materials and Sapura Energy were flat at one sen and five sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 20.5 points higher at 10,880.29, the FBMT 100 Index up 20.52 points to 10,852.09, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 15.73 points to 11,729.98.
The FBM 70 climbed 9.48 points to 14,055.51, while the FBM ACE weakened 19.11 points to 6,209.21.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.01 of-a-point to 193.31, the Financial Services Index gained 34.99 points to 15,144.32, and the Plantation Index firmed 27.46 points to 6,493.95. – Bernama, December 13, 2021
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