KUALA LUMPUR: The positive sentiment has returned to Bursa Malaysia following a strong performance on Wall Street overnight as the fears of a US recession dissipate.
The FBM KLCI, which lagged behind regional peers in the previous session, gapped up 9.26 points at Friday's open to 1,622.20.
Attention is now turning to the release of Malaysia's 2Q economic report later today, which has been given an advanced reading of 5.8% growth, marking its fastest pace since 4Q22, said Apex Securities Research in its outlook.
"We expect the technology sector to gain ground, mirroring the large strides of Nasdaq overnight.
"The telco sector may shine after four mobile network operators (MNOs) have submitted tender to participate in the second 5G network," it added.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Research favours construction, property, building materials and utilities in the head up to the earnings season, given the positive effects of the data centre and AI themes.
"Additionally, we believe banking stocks could trend higher ahead of the Malaysia GDP data, and the stronger ringgit is expected to benefit the Consumer sector," it said in its market report.
With investor attention shoring up the blue chips, leading gainers on the FBM KLCI included Tenaga Nasional up 16 sen to RM14, Telekom Malaysia rising seven sen to RM6.96, Kuala Lumpur Kepong climbing 18 sen to RM21.16 and CIMB adding 12 sen to RM7.65.
On the broader market, SP Setia rebounded four sen to RM1.33 following the previous day's sell-off.
Other actively traded shares included Hextar Healthcare up 1.5 sen to 25.5 sen and Pestech down 1.5 sen to 15.5 sen.
