Bursa opens higher on bargain hunting, breaches 1,600 points

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended its gains to open above the 1,600-point psychological mark today on bargain hunting in mid and small cap stocks after a strong performance on Wall Street overnight.

At 9.15 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 3.24 points to 1,601.44 from Monday's close of 1,598.20. The benchmark index opened 0.38 of a point firmer at 1,598.58.

On the broader market, decliners led gainers 342 to 201, with 326 counters unchanged, 1,520 untraded and eight suspended.

Turnover stood at 466.84 million units worth RM265.55 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng noticed that the daily volume traded on the local bourse had declined tremendously to below the four billion units threshold, but expects this to improve soon to sustain the recent uptrend.

"We anticipate the index to trend between the 1,600-1610 range today as valuation remains reasonable among the blue chips. Meanwhile, crude oil prices were mostly higher with Brent crude closing at US$87 per barrel on heightening geopolitical tension and improving demand," he told Bernama.

Malacca Securities said investors will be monitoring remarks from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) chairman Jerome Powell later today, the Federal Open Market Committee minutes on Wednesday and the US non-farm payrolls data due on Friday. "At this juncture, the Fed has projected for one interest rate cut in 2024," it said in a note.

Bursa heavyweight stocks Maybank rose three sen to RM10, Public Bank added one sen to RM4.04 and CIMB gained five sen to RM6.88. Tenaga Nasional fell four sen to RM13.96 while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.30.

Among the most active counters, ACE-debutant UUE Holdings surged 42 sen to 66 sen, Omesti was three sen firmer at 17.5 sen while SNS Network and Agmo were up half-a-sen each to 84.5 sen and 72.5 sen, respectively. JCY was flat at 79 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 25.16 points to 12,307.61, the FBMT 100 Index increased 24.52 points to 11,882.87 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 21.41 points to 12,646.40.

The FBM 70 Index garnered 38.89 points to 17,972.47 and the FBM ACE Index gained 9.73 points to 5,868.69.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index improved by 37.71 points to 17,534.22 and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.60 of-a-point to 197.39. The Energy Index climbed 3.89 points to 974.54 and the Plantation Index bagged 19.46 points to 7,030.82.

-- BERNAMA

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