At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 6.40 points to 1,473.66 from yesterday’s closing of 1,467.26.
The benchmark index opened at 1,470.37, a 3.11-points or 0.43% improvement from yesterday’s close.
On the broader market, gainers surpassed losers 237 to 104, while 233 counters were unchanged, 1,758 not traded and seven others suspended.
Turnover stood at 236.73 million units worth RM90.93 million.
Rakuten Trade vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said investors are also monitoring Wall Street, which closed marginally higher overnight, as expectations regarding the US Federal Reserve chair’s speech in Jackson Hole tomorrow continue to cause waves of uncertainties.
“The market’s speculation about the speech tomorrow has also boosted the sentiment,” he told Bernama.
Thong noted that although the FBM KLCI index had declined by 50 points over the past five days, bargain hunting was nowhere to be seen as sentiments had turned cautious.
“Therefore, we reckon the index would trend within the 1,460 to 1,475 range today and expect some interest in energy stocks, with the Brent crude now hovering at above US$101 per barrel.
“We also expect to see some rebound in plantation stocks as yesterday’s selling could have been a bit overdone as crude palm oil price ended higher at above RM4,300 per tonne,” he said.
Meanwhile, heavyweights Maybank gained four sen to RM8.85, Public Bank and Press Metal added a sen each to RM4.63 and RM4.66, respectively, while Petronas Chemicals was down by three sen to RM8.47.
Of the actives, Hibiscus Petroleum gained three sen to 99 sen and TWL Holdings’ shares were flat at five sen, while Serba Dinamik and its warrant were also flat at 4.5 sen and 1.5 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM emas index rose 47.58 points to 10,497.93, the FBMT 100 index gained 45.88 points to 10,236.21, the FBM 70 added 62.51 points to 12,663.51 and the FBM ACE went up 21.36 points to 4,896.33, while the FBM emas shariah index jumped 55.05 points to 10,558.87.
Sector-wise, the financial services index advanced 46.60 points to 16,597.55 and the energy index increased 10.75 points to 717.94, while the plantation index was 29.96 points better at 6,890.79 and the industrial products and services index added 0.24 of-a-point to 180.13.
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