The positive sentiment of the broad market, a rebound on Wall Street, made the Stock Exchange open positively at the beginning of the week.
Commenting on Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd's note, investors are seen taking the signal that the weak US consumer price index data may allow the Federal Reserve (Fed) to implement a less aggressive rate hike.
Based on that factor, the Stock Exchange opened positively with buying interest appearing on the counters of technology, telecommunications, health and energy where the price of crude oil experienced a rebound.
Looking at the index chart, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was up 5.22 points at 1,501.75.90 from Friday's close at 1,496.53 with a strong opening of 1.13 points at 1,497.66.
In the broader market, gainers at 217 outpaced losers at 88, while 209 counters were unchanged, 1,801 untraded and 9 suspended.
Total revenue at 139.91 million units worth RM74.03 million.
Heavyweight stocks saw Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) add 6 sen to RM9.03, Public Bank Bhd gained 2 sen to RM4.71, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd and IHH Healthcare Bhd gained 3 sen to RM8.97 and RM6.20 while CIMB Group Holdings Bhd jumped 5 sen to RM5.49.
Active shares showed Harvest Miracle Capital Bhd up 1 sen at 16 sen, Cnergenz Bhd jumped 4 sen at RM1.06 and Agmo Holdings Bhd reached 3.5 sen at RM1 while MLABS Systems Bhd remained at 1.5 sen and Metronic Global Bhd at 3.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas index gained 36.27 points at 10,664.49, the FBMT 100 index rose 35.52 points at 10,410.97, the Shariah Gold index was strong by 31.68 points at 10,725.16, the FBM 70 reached 41.17 points at 12,797.99 and the FBM ACE added 16.82 points at 4,875.30.
In terms of sectors, the Products and Services index reached 0.29 points at 185.89, the Energy index rose 5.57 points at 712.73 and the Financial Services index jumped 93.80 points at 16,910.98 while the Plantation index fell 9.98 points at 6,983.99.
Meanwhile, the ringgit fell against the dollar at 4.4970/5010 from last Friday's close of 4.4965/4990.
