Bursa malaysia: Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Tuesday, tracking Wall Street's overnight gains as bargain-hunting activities emerged following the previous week's sharp selloff. At 9.53 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 7.64 points to 1,748.52, after opening 15.21 points higher at 1,756.09, compared with last Friday's close of 1,740.88.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, the broader market saw gainers leading losers 376 to 370, while 465 counters remained unchanged. A total of 1,417 counters were untraded and 62 suspended. The market turnover stood at 756.30 million shares valued at RM597.06 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng, noted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.05 per cent to 49,407.66, and the S and P500 rose 0.54 per cent to 6,976.64, while Nasdaq climbed to 23,592.11 overnight. He highlighted that in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index continued to finish lower due to concerns over stretched technology valuations and aggressive artificial intelligence-related investments.
Thong Pak Leng also mentioned that back home, the benchmark index remains in a healthy uptrend mode, with intermittent profit-taking likely to continue after the recent rally. He stated that the strengthening of the ringgit is expected to provide support to the local market, and anticipates the FBM KLCI to oscillate within the 1,730-1,750 range.
In terms of heavyweight counters, Maybank added 10 sen to RM11.90, Public Bank gained 5.0 sen to RM4.92, and Tenaga Nasional put on 12 sen to RM14.06. CIMB and IHH Healthcare edged down one sen each to RM8.57 and RM8.95, respectively.
On the most active list, Pharmaniaga was one sen higher at 29.5 sen, Zetrix AI inched up half-a-sen to 81 sen, Capital A eased 1.5 sen to 60 sen, Tanco slid 3.0 sen to RM1.33, and Gamuda shed 20 sen to RM4.22.
Top gainers included Nestle, which advanced RM2.00 to RM114, Malaysian Pacific Industries rose 58 sen to RM32.58, and Ajinomoto increased 28 sen to RM13.92. Dutchlady Milk Industries gained 22 sen to RM33.22, while Telekom Malaysia rose 21 sen to RM8.11.
Among leading decliners, Fraser and Neave fell 96 sen to RM34.80, Hong Leong Bank dropped 68 sen to RM25.12, and Petronas Dagangan slipped 40 sen to RM20.80. Tradeplus decreased 33 sen to RM5.87, and RHB Bank was 21 sen lower at RM8.24.
On the index board, the FBM Top 100 Index rose 40.32 points to 12,602.34, the FBM Emas Index recovered 36.52 points to 12,782.51, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 40.97 points to 12,316.29. The FBM ACE Index erased 3.97 points to 4,719.03, while the FBM Mid 70 Index climbed 29.35 points to 17,538.93.
In sector terms, the Financial Services Index went down 4.36 points to 21,505.82, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.36 of-a-point to 175.92, the Plantation Index gained 36.59 points to 8,401.15, while the Energy Index fell 4.46 points to 754.47.
Meanwhile, Guocoland (Malaysia) Bhd (GLM) announced that Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd has approved the company's request for suspension in the trading of the ordinary shares in GLM from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm on Tuesday, pending the release of a material announcement.