Bursa Malaysia started Wednesday's trade on a more positive note with gains again and tracking Wall Street's overnight performance amid speculation the Fed will end its tight monetary policy cycle.
At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 5.67 points to 1,631.63 from 1,625.96 at the close of trading on Tuesday.
The benchmark index opened up 4.02 points to 1,629.98.
Broad sentiment remained positive with gainers outnumbering losers by 252 to 155. Meanwhile, 308 counters were unchanged, 1,773 were untraded and six others were suspended.
The total turnover was 177.49 million units worth RM79.09 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd Vice President of Equity Research Thong Pak Leng said his firm expects the main index to move within the 1,625 to 1,635 range throughout the day on the back of Wall Street's excellent overnight performance.
Wall Street ended higher, supported by significant buying that pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average to record highs.
Market participants are still hoping the Fed will cut key interest rates this September in light of better-than-expected retail sales data.
In addition, heavyweights saw Maybank rise four sen to RM10.14, TNB gain two sen to RM14.48 while Public Bank, CIMB and IHH Healthcare each rose three sen to RM4.16, RM7.18 and RM6.38. .
Press Metal and Hong Leong Bank on the other hand remained unchanged at RM5.98 and RM19.10.
For the most active counters, Censof rose two sen to 40.5 sen while Malayan United increased half a sen to nine sen, Nova MSC and Computer Forms rose half a sen to 19.5 sen and 17.5 sen, Aimflex remained at 20 sen and Kanger International dropped half a sen to 5.5 penny
