Bursa Malaysia Opens Higher, Tracking Wall Street's Positive Performance

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened higher in line with Wall Street’s positive performance after the United States September’s non-farm payrolls exceeded expectations, a sign that the economy remains strong.

At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 4.46 points to 1,634.43 versus Friday’s close of 1,629.97.

The benchmark index opened 3.61 points better at 1,633.58.

Market breadth was positive with advancers leading losers 218 to 123, while 239 counters remained unchanged, 1,838 untraded, and 15 suspended.

Turnover stood at 170.99 million units valued at RM83.69 million.

The US non-farm payrolls rose by 254,000 jobs last month after an upward revision to 159,000 in August; unemployment slipped to 4.1 per cent in September.

In a note today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd expects traders to monitor and accumulate selected technology stocks given Wall Street’s positive sentiment and a slightly weakened ringgit.

"Additionally, the strong surge in crude oil and crude palm oil prices are likely to increase investor interest in the oil and gas and plantation sectors," it said. 

Looking ahead to Budget 2025, the brokerage firm added that traders may also position themselves in construction, property, building materials and utilities sectors.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga Nasional fell two sen each to RM10.48 and RM14.26 respectively. CIMB eased one sen to RM7.19, while Public Bank added four sen to RM4.57 and IHH Healthcare gained three sen to RM7.25. 

On the active counters, OCR Group declined half-a-sen to three sen, while Velesto Energy rose one sen to 21.5 sen, 99 Speed Mart added six sen to RM2.35, Capital A firmed 1.5 sen to 88 sen and Sanichi was unchanged at 1.5 sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased by 38.08 points to 12,247.57, the FBM Emas Shariah Index expanded 47.27 points to 12,161.48, the FBMT 100 Index climbed 36.60 points to 11,937.17 and the FBM 70 Index edged up 68.35 points to 17,354.76 and the FBM ACE Index earned 16.33 points to 5,125.85.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index put on 8.72 points to 19,199.40, the Energy Index advanced 12.49 points to 905.17, the Plantation Index perked up 21.96 points to 7,207.74, and the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.24 of-a-point to 176.34.

-- BERNAMA