At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) registered a 3.45-point gain to 1,434.50 points. Dealers also attributed the bourse’s good start to the day with the better performance of its regional peers.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said trading of all three major indices on the Wall Street was choppy before they staged a late rally to close positively.
While concerns over inflation were still evident, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 194 points while Nasdaq jumped 179 points.
Thong also noted that the US 10-year yield continued to slide, ending at 3.09%.
Back home, the overall market breath was positive, with gainers surpassing losers 131 to 95. A total of 167 counters were unchanged, 1,896 yet to trade and another 10 remained suspended.
Turnover stood at 77.59 million units worth RM33.11 million.
Thong expects the FBM KLCI to hover within the consolidation phase to settle in the 1,430-1,445 range today, in view of the prevailing cautious sentiments.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank gained three sen each to RM8.59 and RM4.43 respectively, CIMB added a sen to RM4.91, while Petronas Chemicals lost four sen to RM9.11 and IHH Healthcare was unchanged at RM6.36.
Of the active counters, Xidelang Holdings remained unchanged at two sen, Dagang NeXchange rose half-a-point to 75.5 sen and Tafi Industries widened two sen to 49 sen. Both Straits Energy and Malaysian Genomics expanded 1.5 sen each to 12 sen and 77.5 sen respectively.
The FBM Emas Shariah index gained 25.43 points to 10,378.41, FBM 70 increased 48.08 points to 12,391.96, FBM Emas index appreciated 26.94 points to 10,234.18 and the FBMT 100 Index surged 27.49 points to 9,976.59.
Bucking the trend is FBM ACE, which was weaker by 3.86 points at 4,742.75.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index strengthened 46.94 points to 15,967.53, while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.18 of-a-point to 181.10.
Despite a rebound in crude palm oil price to almost RM4,900 per tonne, the Plantation Index declined 15.74 points to 6,938.54.