BURSA Malaysia rebounded to open marginally higher on Friday, buoyed by mild bargain-hunting activities among blue chips amid Wall Street’s mixed performance overnight.
At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) inched up 2.22 points or 0.14 per cent to 1,575.24 from Thursday’s close of 1,573.02.
The benchmark index opened 2.58 points higher at 1,575.60.
Meanwhile, market breadth was almost flat with 154 gainers and 161 decliners, while 277 counters were unchanged, 1,804 untraded and eight suspended.
Turnover stood at 168.00 million shares valued at RM82.45 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street closed mixed as traders tried to justify their outlook on the 90-day tariff pause between China and the United States to validate their cautious optimism.
Back home, he said the local bourse might require a strong catalyst for the benchmark index to test the 1,600 level, after failing to sustain positive momentum along the week.
“As of now, we suspect the index may mirror the regional markets’ performance, which are highly susceptible to the ongoing externalities. Thus, we expect the index to trend within the 1,570-1,580 range today,” he told Bernama.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose four sen to RM10.14, CIMB gained seven sen to RM7.23 and IHH Healthcare added one sen to RM7.04, while Public Bank was flat at RM4.51 and Tenaga Nasional fell six sen to RM14.14.
In active trade, West River gained 1.5 sen to 37 sen, Harvest Miracle and Sumisaujana each put on half a sen to 18 sen and 19.5 sen, respectively, and Fibromat garnered four sen to 54.5 sen, while SFP Tech lost half a sen to 26 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index bagged 3.77 points to 11,777.78, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 3.94 points to 11,523.52, and the FBM ACE Index expanded 2.35 points to 4,777.49.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index went down 10.76 points to 11,707.86 and the FBM 70 Index declined by 43.15 points to 16,768.03.
Across sectors, the Financial Services Index grew 43.41 points to 18,513.90, the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.35 of-a-point to 159.44, the Energy Index shed 6.34 points to 731.00 and the Plantation Index advanced 7.45 points to 7,395.55. — BERNAMA
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