KUALA LUMPUR (June 21): Bursa Malaysia rebounded to open higher on Tuesday (June 21), supported by renewed buying of selected heavyweights in line with positive sentiment on regional markets, a dealer said.

At 9.07am, the FBM KLCI had risen 5.22 points to 1,446.46 from Monday's close at 1,441.24.

The benchmark index opened 2.06 points higher at 1,443.30.

Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 196 to 98, while 200 counters were unchanged, 1,781 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 130.05 million units worth RM54.57 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the performance of regional markets is expected to improve on Tuesday, in tandem with the strong overnight performance on Wall Street.

"Back home, we reckon blue-chips are ripe for accumulation at current levels as bargain-hunting activities did not appear yesterday (Monday),” he told Bernama.

As such, he said the index is expected to possibly trend within the 1,435-1,455 range on Tuesday.

"On another note, we noticed that plantation stocks had been on a downtrend for the past weeks, mirroring the slump in crude palm oil prices, currently fetching RM5,260 per tonne from RM6,150 per tonne before, due to weakening soybean prices on improving production," he said.

Among the heavyweights, both Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd were unchanged at RM8.65 and RM4.90 respectively, Public Bank Bhd added three sen to RM4.46, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd gained one sen to RM9.49 and IHH Healthcare Bhd climbed five sen to RM6.38.

Of the actives, MNC Wireless Bhd stood at 1.5 sen, while SFP Tech Holdings Bhd expanded one sen to 67 sen, Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) widened 1.5 sen to 76.5 sen, and Cnergenz Bhd and Sapura Energy Bhd were stronger by half a sen at 60.5 sen and 40 sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 37.14 points to 10,299.37, FBM Emas Shariah Index strengthened 44.88 points to 10,449.92, FBM 70 inched up 50.88 points to 12,414.74, FBM ACE rose 26.85 points to 4,764.41 and FBMT 100 Index climbed 37.45 points to 10,044.44.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was higher by 24.11 points at 16,069.10, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.70 of a point stronger at 184.18, while the Plantation Index lost 34.86 points to 7,079.64.