Bursa opens higher, tracking improvement on Wall Street

KUALA LUMPUR (April 2): Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, tracking the overnight improvement on Wall Street.

At 9.10am, the benchmark FBM KLCI had gained 2.93 points to 1,585.57 from yesterday’s close at 1,582.64.

The index opened 3.87 points higher at 1,586.51 today.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 294 to 171, while 328 counters were unchanged, 1,331 untraded and nine others suspended.

Total volume stood at 596.52 million shares worth RM225.02 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd expects the local bourse to extend the rebound formation, especially in technology stocks, mirroring the gains on the Nasdaq.

Commodities-wise, both crude palm oil (CPO) and oil prices had seen a strong surge of more than 3%, it added.

“We reckon that the overnight gains on the Nasdaq may continue supporting the uptrend of technology stocks on the local front.

“Also, traders may focus on the recovery theme as Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has mentioned that fully vaccinated individuals may be allowed to travel domestically and internationally,” the brokerage said in a research note today.

It added that market participants could look into the oil and gas (O&G) and plantation sectors, given the strong surge in CPO and Brent oil prices.

Brent crude jumped 3.38% to US$64.86 (RM268.59) per barrel after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies agreed to add more than two million barrels a day to world oil supplies between May and July.

The move will rebuild a quarter of crude oil stock after the oil cartel and its allies made a deep cut a year ago due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia’s Energy Index rose 3.16 points to 938.34.

Of the heavyweights, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), Public Bank Bhd and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) gained two sen each to RM8.27, RM4.24 and RM10.28 respectively, whereas IHH Healthcare Bhd was one sen higher at RM5.31, while Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd (PetChem) and Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLB) were flat at RM8.05 and RM18.58 respectively.

As for the active counters, Luster Industries Bhd advanced 1.5 sen to 23 sen, whereas UCrest Bhd, Permaju Industries Bhd, HB Global Ltd and KNM Group Bhd all inched up half a sen to 25.5 sen, 21 sen, 28.5 sen and 19.5 sen respectively, while Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) was flat at 43.5 sen and MCT Bhd edged down half a sen to 32.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 16.89 points to 11,724.31, the FBM 70 put on 2.53 points to 15,662.47, the FBMT 100 rose 15.97 points to 11,381.74, the FBM Emas Shariah increased 23.19 points to 12,988.5 and the FBM ACE trimmed 141.3 points to 9,852.13.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index expanded 24.35 points to 15,276.89, the Plantation Index went up 1.32 points to 7,035.08, and the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.47 of a point to 193.52.

Source: TheEdgeMarkets