Bursa Malaysia opens higher, tracking Wall Street performance

At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) grew 4.70 points to 1,639.61, compared to Wednesday's close of 1,634.91. The benchmark index had opened 4.84 points firmer at 1,639.75.

The market breadth was positive, with 183 gainers outpacing 107 decliners while 245 counters remained unchanged, 1,906 were untraded, and 22 were suspended.

Turnover stood at 119.77 million units, valued at RM42.94 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the US Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) added 432 points while the Nasdaq gained 109 points with the US Treasury 10-year yield edging higher at 4.07 per cent. "In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index suffered another day of decline as the index slid by almost 290 points to almost the 20,500 level amid the trashing of both the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets, following a dismal press conference by China's economic planner a couple of days ago," he told Bernama.

Back home, Thong reckons the trading pattern will improve slightly, taking cue from the positive US markets, thus he is expecting the index to hover within the 1,635-1,645 range today.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added six sen to RM10.56, CIMB gained three sen to RM8.06 while Tenaga Nasional, IHH Healthcare and Hong Leong Bank were all unchanged at RM14.42. RM7.22 and RM21.10, respectively.

As for the active counters, Leap Market debutant Autoris Group firmed 20 sen to 30 sen, Pertama Digital improved 1.5 sen to 26 sen, TWL Holdings, Borneo Oil and Mag Holdings all increased half-a-sen each to three sen, one sen, and 17 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index advanced by 34.01 points to 12,304.52, the FBM Emas Shariah Index edged up 36.57 points to 12,203.20a and the FBMT 100 Index expanded by 34.35 points to 12,003.18.

The FBM 70 Index picked up 49.86 points to 17,555.54 and the FBM ACE Index inched up 3.58 points to 5,163.60.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index garnered 47.22 points to 19,292.91, the Plantation Index ticked up 19.52 points to 7,191.69 and the Industrial Products and Services Index added 1.08 points to 176.36 while the Energy Index slipped 2.15 points to 881.91.

-- BERNAMA