KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher today despite a mixed performance on Wall Street as most heavyweights recovered from losses amid broad demand across sectors.
At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) climbed 5.76 points to 1,617.25 from Tuesday’s close of 1,611.49.
The FBM KLCI opened 5.14 points higher at 1,616.63.
Gainers surpassed decliners 285 to 174, while 366 counters remained unchanged, 1,576 untraded, and nine others suspended.
Turnover totalled 402.86 million units worth RM164.73 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said traders are waiting for the US inflation data due out later today coupled with the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) outlook on interest rates.
It is widely anticipated that the Fed will keep the interest rate unchanged at this juncture.
"As a result, the Dow Jones lost 121 points while the Nasdaq jumped by 151 points largely thanks to Apple that saw share price soar amid optimism of its new artificial intelligence (AI) feature,” he said.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said this development is positive for the technology sector, which has been on an uptrend recently, driven by the rising demand for data centre investments in Malaysia, and AI and cloud services may also bode well for specific segments such as HDD.
"Also, with several property players announcing land sales to data centre providers and multinational corporations, we opine that the further upward rerating of property players may stay for the near term as
their land bank will be revalued higher for now,” it said.
Other sectors that may benefit include construction, building materials, utilities and renewable energy.
Among the heavyweights, TM continued to lead with 19 sen gains to RM6.78, CIMB rose five sen to RM6.94, IHH bagged six sen to RM6.31, Public Bank increased two sen to RM4.10 and KLK was 32 firmer at RM20.90.
As for the actives, Harvest Miracle improved by one sen to 11.5 sen, Talam Transform
inched up half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, JAKS Resources and Velesto were flat at 19 sen and 27 sen respectively, while SNS Network added six sen to 81.5 sen. - Bernama
