At 9.09 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 7.25 points higher at 1,760.32 from Wednesday’s close of 1,753.07.

The index opened 1.12 points stronger at 1,754.19.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced decliners 197 to 92 while 223 counters were unchanged, 1,414 untraded and 17 others were suspended.

Volume stood at 159.27 million units valued at RM84.07 million.

The Dow Jones settled 0.3 per cent higher at 25,199.29 while the S&P 500 was 0.2% stronger at 2,815.62.

Public Investment Bank Bhd said, in a note, that US markets ended higher, driven by banking and industrial-based stocks as better-than-expected earnings from the likes of Morgan Stanley and CSX drove optimism.

Among heavyweights, Maybank gained 19 sen to RM9.79, Public Bank rose 18 sen to RM23.88, CIMB improved five sen to RM5.90 while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM8.85 and Tenaga slipped two sen to RM14.86.

Among actives, Velesto Energy was up 1.5 sen at 29.5 sen, Revenue Group was four sen higher at 66.5 sen, Sapura Energy and Sino Hua-An were each half-a-sen higher at 60.5 sen and 31.5 sen, respectively, while Priceworth were flat at nine sen.

F&N was the biggest gainer in early trading, bagging 74 sen to RM38.50 while MNRB topped the decliners list in losing 20 sen to RM2.14.

The FBM Emas Index was 44.77 points higher at 12,420.99, the FBMT 100 Index increased 44.63 points to 12,223.36 and the FBM 70 bagged 34.22 points to 15,157.86.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 18.56 points to 12,485.64 and the FBM Ace Index gained 32.97 points to 5,440.54.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index rose 147.76 points to 17,398.00, the Industrial Index increased 10.54 points to 3,220.72 and the Plantation Index improved 20.18 points to 7,513.02.