KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened higher in early trade today, on bargain-hunting after experiencing a heavy sell-off yesterday, despite a weaker performance on Wall Street.

The United States (US) shares turned risk averse heading into major central bank meetings and lingering worries over the spread of the Omicron variant, dealers said

At 9.52 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.63 points to 1,483.55 compared with 1,480.92 at Tuesday's close.

The index opened 0.93 of-a-point better at 1,481.85.

On the broader market, losers led gainers 242 to 239, while 313 counters were unchanged, 1,523 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 452.51 million units valued at RM244.20 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the FBM KLCI slipped from Monday's rebound, in tandem with the global stock markets performances yesterday.

The local market is expected to remain tepid as investors may stay cautious ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, as market players anticipated tighter monetary policy going forward, as well as concerns over the COVID-19 Omicron variant in the United Kingdom.

"Also, investors are likely to remain cautious amid inflationary pressure and are taking a pause ahead of the Sarawak state election," it said.

On the commodity markets, both crude palm oil (CPO) and crude oil prices staged a pullback, while the steel price is on its uptrend move, it noted.

"The stabilising steel price may benefit the building material companies but this might hit construction players.

"Besides, investors may look out for blue-chips this month in anticipation of window-dressing activities," it added.

Among heavyweights, Maybank edged up half-a-sen to RM8.14, while Public Bank, Petronas Chemicals, IHH Healthcare and Tenaga were flat at RM4.00, RM8.61, RM6.50 and RM9.23, respectively.

Of the actives, ATA IMS added 3.5 sen to 58.5 sen, Pelikan gained three sen to 57 sen, while Dataprep shed three sen to RM1.02, and Sapura Energy and Widad were flat at five sen and 35 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 21.27 points higher at 10,814.46, the FBMT 100 Index up 23.49 points to 10,510.34, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 21.01 points to 11,637.04.

The FBM 70 declined 50.51 points to 13,924.71 and the FBM ACE strengthened 22.44 points to 6,207.94.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.45 of-a-point to 193.78, the Financial Services Index rose 51.38 points to 15,130.02, while the Plantation Index eased 0.73 of a point to 6,429.77.--BERNAMA