KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday's gains to end slightly higher today on improved risk appetite, taking cue from the Wall Street performance overnight, dealers said.

At 5 pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 1.83 points to 1,484.64 from 1,482.81 at Wednesday's close. 

The index, which opened 2.65 points better at 1,485.46, moved between 1,483.79 and 1,491.69  throughout the trading session.

On the broader market, gainers thumped losers 504 to 361, while 424 counters were unchanged, 1,026 untraded, and 37 others suspended.

Turnover improved to 2.83 billion units valued at RM2.35 billion from Wednesday's 2.82 billion units valued at RM1.74 billion.

A dealer said the local bourse opened higher and stayed in positive territory throughout the trading session with the benchmark index ending 0.12 per cent better, lifted mainly by banking stocks.

"The performance was in line with regional peers, which tracked the higher Wall Street performance, amid risk-on mode in reaction to the Federal Reserve's (Fed) hawkish statement.

"The Fed announced it would end bond-buying stimulus in March to set up guidance for three interest rate hikes each in 2022 and 2023 to tackle heated inflation. This spurred a risk rally," he added.

Regionally, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 2.13 per cent to 29,066.32 and Singapore's Straits Times Index increased 0.61 per cent to 3,133.90, South Korea's Kospi added 0.57 per cent to 3,006.41, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index improved 0.23 per cent to 23,475.50.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said despite the improvement in regional market sentiment, the company reckoned that market volatility would heighten going forward, thus the regional markets are expected to encounter wilder swings.

"Taking cognisance of this, we prefer to stay cautious. We believe the local market will see more headwinds and that the FBM KLCI will experience more resistance.

"Hence, we anticipate the local bourse to remain subdued with the index hovering within the 1,480 to 1,490 range towards the weekend," he told Bernama.

Among heavyweights, Maybank improved one sen to RM8.11, Public Bank and IHH Healthcare perked up two sen each to RM4.03 and RM6.50, respectively, Petronas Chemicals rose seven sen to RM8.68, while Tenaga erased five sen to RM9.24.

Of the actives, ATA IMS shed 1.5 sen to 68 sen, ACE Market debutant Aurelius advanced 34 sen to end at RM1.70, while Pasukhas, Saudee and Impiana Hotels were flat at 2.5 sen, six sen and 8.5 sen respectively. 

Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia, in a statement yesterday, announced the change in the name of Macpie Bhd, with a short stock name of Macpie, to XOX Networks Bhd, with a short stock name of XOXNet, effective 9 am on Friday, Dec 17.