Bursa Malaysia opens slightly higher on encouraging US inflation data
KUALA LUMPUR,. Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher today, mirroring gains on the Wall Street overnight, driven by the encouraging United States (US) inflation data amid lingering cautious sentiments, an analyst said.
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.58 points to 1,472.70 from yesterday’s closing of 1,470.12.
The market bellwether opened 1.77 points higher at 1,471.89.
On the broader market, gainers surpassed decliners 220 to 107, while 216 counters were unchanged, 1,730 untraded and 13 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 168.04 million units worth RM79.43 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended in positive territory as the US consumer price index (CPI) came in lower than the forecast, hence, many expect the US Federal Reserve to be less aggressive in hiking rates.
On the home front, he said the local bourse is expected to trade within a tight range, in tandem with the regional markets.
“We reckon the FBM KLCI index to trend within the 1,470-1,485 range.
“We anticipate buying to focus on the oil and gas counters following the rebound in crude oil prices, spurred by the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in China,” he told Bernama.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank was unchanged at RM8.75, Public Bank rose two sen to RM4.37, CIMB added one sen to RM5.77 and TNB gained six sen to RM9.27, while Petronas Chemicals eased one sen to RM8.47.
Of the actives, SNS added two sen to 27 sen, Borneo Oil and Dataprep were unchanged at 2.5 sen and 25.5 sen, respectively, Advance Synergy ticked up half-a-sen to 17.5 sen and YX Precious rose 1.5 sen to 23 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index advanced 15.22 points to 10,594.76, the FBMT 100 Index ticked up 14.35 points to 10,296.95, the FBM Emas Shariah Index strengthened 34.90 points to 10,742.71, the FBM 70 edged up 3.32 points to 13,009.32, while the FBM ACE eased 0.25 of-a-point to 5,494.65.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 16.98 points lower at 16,555.15, while the Plantation Index earned 29.86 points to 6,715.80, the Industrial Products and Services Index increased by 0.38 of-a-point to 180.99, and the Energy Index climbed 5.35 points to 790.07. ― Bernama
