KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher Friday on better sentiment, sparked by the Wall Street rally overnight following a joint rescue of First Republic Bank by several big US banks, an analyst said.
At 9.10 am, the benchmark FBM KLCI gained 11.13 points to 1,402.73 from Thursday's close of 1,391.60.
The market bellwether opened 5.68 points higher at 1,397.28.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 304 to 74, while 197 counters were unchanged, 1,690 untraded, and 27 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 292.66 million units worth RM140.87 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street rebounded as bailouts for both Credit Suisse Group AG and First Republic Bank eased concerns of a deepening banking crisis despite the European Central Bank jacking up interest rates by another 50 basis points.
Meanwhile, many quarters are betting that the US Federal Reserve may be less aggressive in hiking interest rates next week, he added.
"As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 372 points while the Nasdaq jumped by 283 points as the US 10-year yield edged higher to 3.58 per cent.
"Back home, a rebound is in the offing buoyed by the positive performance on Wall Street. Hence, we anticipate the index to hover within the 1,390-1,405 range on broad-based accumulation today," he told Bernama.
Bursa Malaysia heavyweights Maybank rose 10 sen to RM8.36, Public Bank added four sen to RM3.97, CIMB and TNB climbed seven sen to RM5.22 and RM9.42, respectively, while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM6.99.
Among the actives, Top Glove, Minda Global and Vinvest Capital bagged one sen each to 84.5 sen, 12.5 sen and 23 sen, respectively.
Hong Seng Consolidated inched down half-a-sen to 14.5 sen and Careplus was flat at 27 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index ticked up 77.96 points to 10,259.13, the FBMT 100 Index gained 76.11 points to 9,954.25, the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 65.20 points to 10,546.47, the FBM 70 Index perked up 89.00 points to 13,220.53, and the FBM ACE Index increased 72.90 points to 5,263.67.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index surged 143.10 points to 15,496.99, the Plantation Index advanced 38.05 points to 6,719.43, the Energy Index garnered 4.38 points to 817.75, and the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.79 of-a-point to 168.47.
- BERNAMA
