Bursa Malaysia started trading today by ending a 5-session losing streak after modest support buying occurred late yesterday, giving an indication of the emergence of bargain-hunting activity.
At 9am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was up 2.69 points at 1,485.26 from Tuesday's close of 1,482.57.
The index opened up 1.53 points at 1,484.10.
In the broader market, gainers at 160 outpaced losers at 114, while 199 counters were unchanged, 1,859 untraded and 7 suspended.
Total revenue at 181.58 million units worth RM74.35 million.
Rakuten Trade Vice President Thong Pak Leng commented, moderate buying interest in local equities during yesterday's midday trading session supported the KLCI index to be in the 1,480 range.
Regarding today's forecast, the firm said buying interest in technology and energy counters is expected to continue as there is news about OPEC+ that will limit production.
Therefore, the overall index for today's session is expected to hover in the range of 1,480-1,500.
Heavyweight stocks saw Maybank reach 1 sen at RM8.84, Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional advanced 2 sen at RM4.62 and RM8.60 and CIMB rose 6 sen at RM5.34 while Petronas Chemicals fell 21 sen at RM8.35 and IHH Healthcare was down 3 sen at RM6.31.
Active shares saw Euro Holdings advance 1 sen at 14 sen and Hibiscus Petroleum up 2 sen at 99.5 sen while Serba Dinamik lost 2.5 sen at 5.5 sen.
On the index board, FBM Emas index rose 13.41 points at 10,546.37, FBMT 100 index reached 14.95 points at 10,292.48, FBM 70 added 3.52 points at 12,635.39 and FBM ACE rose 3.15 points at 4,894.95 while FBM Emas Shariah index decreased 0.60 points at 10,648.02.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services index gained 45.52 points at 16,584.12 and the Energy index rose 18.29 points at 731.17 while the Plantation index declined 46.01 points at 7,105.86 and the Products and Services index fell 1.01 points at 179.41.
