Border reopening news boosts Bursa Malaysia

At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 4.80 points better at 1,551.67 from Tuesday's close of 1,546.87.

The bellwether index opened 3.45 points firmer at 1,550.32.

Market breadth was positive with gainers surpassing losers 249 to 85, while 218 counters were unchanged, 1,721 untraded and 11 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 116.73 million units worth RM72.52 million.

In its Market Pulse note today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said traders may start to focus on tourism and aviation themes in light of the announcement on the reopening of borders.

The move is in line with the government's plan on entering the 'Transition to Endemic' phase, as well as the effort to revive the overall national economy, especially the tourism industry which had been badly hit by the pandemic.

However, the brokerage cautioned that the overall gains are likely to be short-lived, taking their cue from the overnight Wall Street performance, although there might be mild bargain hunting activities in selected commodity sectors.

The Wall Street endured a choppy trading session before edging lower as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI Average) declined 0.6 per cent after United States President Joe Biden announced sanctions on imports of Russian fossil fuels.

"Do note that investors will be monitoring the elevated commodity prices that may translate to significant inflation and input costs to various industries," it said.

Malacca Securities also believed that the current uptrend in selected energy, plantation and metal and precious metal sectors may continue with the elevated commodity prices.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank was up one sen to RM8.81, Public Bank and IHH Healthcare rose five sen to RM4.35 and RM6.43, respectively, Petronas Chemicals gained four sen to RM9.74, while Press Metal lost 13 sen to RM6.66.

As for the actives, Capital A increased two sen to 68.5 sen, DNex advanced 2.5 sen to 96 sen and SMTrack firmed half-a-sen to 11 sen, while Ta Win and Bumi Armada were unchanged at 13.5 sen and 42 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 49.68 points higher at 10,928.01, the FBMT 100 Index inched up 45.94 points to 10,639.74, the FBM Emas Shariah Index expanded 37.68 points to 11,592.44, the FBM 70 bagged 112.28 points to 12,577.58, and the FBM ACE perked 35.40 points to 5,060.34.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 84.52 points better at 15,854.89, while the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.11 of-a-point to 203.30 and the Plantation Index climbed 19.74 points to 8,269.91.