Bursa Malaysia opens higher, echoing Wall Street's record-breaking rally

At 9.24 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 6.90 points to 1,625.28 from Tuesday's close of 1,618.38.

The index opened 2.78 points higher at 1,621.16.

On the broader market, gainers led decliners 412 to 191, with 371 counters unchanged, 1,457 untraded and seven suspended.

Turnover totalled 562.16 million units worth RM279.35 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said it was another record-breaking day on Wall Street, which was boosted by the surge in tech stocks.

Traders remain optimistic that the United States (US) Federal Reserve will adjust its policy rates in September ahead of new inflation data over the next two days.

"As such, the Dow Jones gained 429 points while the Nasdaq jumped by 218 points as the US 10-year yield ended marginally lower at 4.281 per cent," he said.

Back home, while the undertone remains rather cautious as daily volume trades have dipped to below the five billion shares level over the last few days, trading activities were expected to improve, taking the robust gains on Wall Street.

Thus, Thong expects the index to hover in the 1,620-1,630 range today, noting that Bank Negara Malaysia will release its latest Overnight Policy Rate decision later today.

Bursa Malaysia heavyweights were mostly in positive territory except for Press Metal and KLK.

Maybank recovered four sen to RM10.06, while Tenaga Nasional, Public Bank and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM14.40, RM4.14 and RM6.30, respectively, while CIMB rose seven sen to RM7.16.

As for the most active counters, technology-related counters dominate, with Techbase Industries 1.5 sen higher at 23 sen, Cabnet jumping 6.5 sen to 76.5 sen, Dataprep easing one sen to 23.5 sen and Nova MSC losing two sen to 25 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 66.86 points to 12,577.24, the FBMT 100 Index rose 64.72 points to 12,150.63, the FBM Emas Shariah Index garnered 73.13 points to 12,930.39, the FBM 70 Index soared 147.59 points to 18,711.12, and the FBM ACE Index improved 20.33 points to 5,994.91.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index put on 89.64 points to 17,838.45, the Plantation Index rose 5.23 points to 6,963,20, the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 0.44 of-a-point to 200.50, while the Energy Index reduced by 2.54 points to 982.41.

-- BERNAMA