KUALA LUMPUR (March 9): Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday’s gains to open higher today despite a muted performance of its Asian peers at opening, taking its cue from an overnight mixed performance on Wall Street.

At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 5.97 points to 1,617. 78 from Monday’s close of 1,611.81.

The key index opened 4.18 points higher at 1615.99.

However, on the broader market, losers led gainers 263 to 245, while 324 counters were unchanged, 1,346 untraded and eight others suspended.

Total volume stood at 313.40 million units worth RM189.60 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the FBM KLCI extended its winning streak and outperformed its regional peers Monday, as recovery play gained strength, offsetting the losses in glove heavyweights.

It said the shift in investors’ interest to recovery-play stocks, coupled with the selldown on Wall Street may continue to weigh on the technology sector today.

Commodity-wise, the crude palm oil price (CPO) has surged near its 10-year high around RM3,963 per tonne level, while investors may look forward to Malaysia's unemployment rate today for market catalyst, it noted.

“At this moment, we believe the key index should hold above the 1,600 level.

“For sector in focus, we believe traders may put plantation stocks on their radar on the back of firmer CPO price, while recovery-theme sectors such as consumer, gaming, aviation and transportation may continue to gain traction amid a decline in COVID-19 cases,” it said

It added that construction and property stocks could also see some trading interest as they are the laggards compared to the broader market.

Among heavyweights, Maybank and Tenaga added four sen each to RM8.54 and RM10.44, respectively, and Public Bank gained three sen to RM4.43.

Petronas Chemicals shed two sen to RM8.33 and IHH Healthcare slipped seven sen to RM5.22. 

Of the actives, Sealink bagged two sen to 30.5 sen , TA Win improved one sen to 38.5 sen, Dagang Nexchange edged up half-a-sen to 72.5 sen, while AirAsia X and CME Group were flat at 9.5 sen and 6.5 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 22.02 points to 11,745.79, the FBMT 100 Index expanded 23.95 points to 11,454.50 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 1.05 points better at 12,882.47.

The FBM ACE slipped 67.39 points to 10,158.64 and the FBM 70 declined 40.18 points to 15,152.31.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index increased 73.77 points to 15,763.77, the Plantation Index gained 8.08 points to 7,123.87 ,while the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.35 of-a-point  to 187.05.