KUALA LUMPUR: The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rebounded to open marginally higher today, supported by bargain-hunting activities despite the cautious sentiment on Wall Street overnight, a dealer said.
At 9.10 am, the benchmark FBM KLCI rose by 1.90 points to 1,382.47 from Wednesday's close of 1,380.57.
The benchmark index opened 4.29 points higher at 1,384.86.
However, on the broader market, decliners edged past gainers 125 to 113, while 188 counters were unchanged, 1,920 untraded and nine others suspended.
Turnover stood at 86.93 million units worth RM51.56 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended marginally lower following a choppy trading session as investors remained cautious ahead of the United States inflation data due to be released later today.
"On the home front, despite the weak market undertone, we reckon some bargain hunting will emerge in the FBM KLCI after three consecutive days of declines.
"As such, we expect the index to trend within the 1,380-1,400 range today, with some focus on the banking and telecommunication sectors," he told Bernama.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank eased by one sen to RM8.50, while Public Bank, CIMB and IHH Healthcare all gained one sen to RM4.23, RM5.31 and RM5.55, respectively, and Petronas Chemicals added seven sen to RM8.62.
Of the actives, Citaglobal stayed flat at 28.5 sen, while Vinvest and Tanco rose half-a-sen to 19.5 sen and 30.5 sen, respectively, Yew Lee inched up one sen to 26.5 sen and Shin Yang advanced 1.5 sen to 78.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 6.43 points to 9,858.83, the FBM 70 went down 10.31 points to 11,929.05, the FBMT 100 Index improved 8.09 points to 9,612.10, the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 6.41 points to 9,828.04, and the FBM ACE fell 19.23 points to 4,612.14.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was 8.49 points higher at 15,932.26, the Industrial Products and Services Index ticked up 1.19 points to 170.43, the Plantation Index edged down 14.62 points to 6,349.90, and the Energy Index reduced by 0.62 of-a-point to 674.16.