KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened on a positive note today, taking its cue from the positive Wall Street performance overnight.

At 9.18 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 4.78 points to 1,470.71 from Thursday's closing of 1,465.93. The market bellwether opened 1.97 points higher at 1,467.90.     

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 246 versus 143, while 267 counters were unchanged, 1,599 untraded and 12 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 485.12 million units worth RM142.49 million.

Given the positive United States (US) equities, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd expects the key index to improve and hover in the 1,460-1,475 range today.

"We noticed that the construction sector's performance has been quite encouraging of late, which could be a precursor of more positive newsflow for the contractors, going forward," it said in a research note today.  

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank added one sen each to RM8.63 and RM4.42, respectively, CIMB gained two sen to RM5.63, TNB jumped 15 sen to RM9.30 and IHH Healthcare advanced five sen to RM5.90.

Meanwhile, Digi, Hong Leong Bank and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM3.85, RM20.44 and RM8.40, respectively.  

Of the actives, Sapura Energy and MQ Technology edged up half-a-sen to 4.5 sen and 5.5 sen, respectively, Icon Offshore rose one sen to nine sen and Infomina added 11 sen to RM1.20, while AHB Holdings, Yew Lee Pacific, Reservoir Link and Ni Hsin were flat at 14 sen, 32 sen, 42 sen and 15.5 sen, respectively. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved by 33.08 points to 10,557.69, the FBMT 100 Index expanded by 32.55 points to 10,261.20, the FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 37.44 points to 10,726.71, the FBM 70 went up 37.81 points to 12,876.94, and the FBM ACE grew 26.51 points to 5,528.53.   

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index strengthened by 6.88 points to 6,739.67 and the Financial Services Index was 32.04 points higher at 16,451.86, while the Industrial Products and Services Index dwindled 0.08 of-a-point to 180.35, and the Energy Index lessened by 2.48 points to 772.63.