Bursa Malaysia began trading this week with gains to track Wall Street's strong performance since last week.
At 2.30pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 7.04 points to 1,626.10 compared to 1,619.06 last Friday.
The index opened higher by 0.80 points to 1,619.86.
The overall market was positive with gainers outnumbering losers by 233 to 161. Meanwhile, 359 counters were unchanged, 1,713 were not traded and 24 others were suspended.
The total turnover was 239.24 million units worth RM96.07 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd expects market participants to receive more exposure in the local market and believes the overall data center catalyst will increase demand for stocks in the construction, real estate, building materials and utilities sectors and is expected to provide opportunities in buying lower-priced stocks.
They will also need to monitor China's economic growth to be released this week in addition to examining core retail readings, industrial production, jobless claims and US corporate earnings.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank and TNB, respectively added two sen to RM10.06 and RM14.48, CelcomDigi rose one sen to RM3.61 while Public Bank, CIMB, IHH Healthcare and Press Metal, respectively, were unchanged at RM4.11, RM7.13, RM6.33 and RM5.95.
Among the most active counters, Aimflex and JAKS rose half a sen to 21 sen and 18 sen respectively, UUE Holdings rose two sen to 94.5 sen, Ramssol jumped seven sen to 75.5 sen, Kanger International was unchanged at 5.5 sen and Ekovest slipped half a cent to 50 cents.
