Bursa Malaysia continued its uptrend yesterday when it opened higher today, tracking Wall Street's performance while the US Presidential election count is still underway.
At 9.06 this morning, the benchmark index of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 10.98 points to 1,475.59 after opening 4.25 points higher at 1,468.86.
Bernama reported that gainers outnumbered losers by 362 to 103 while 233 counters were unchanged, 1,443 untraded and 28 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 385.16 million worth RM191.52 million.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said that although the US presidential election was still taking place, investors instead breathed a sigh of relief because both parties did not control the majority seats in the Senate or the House of Representatives.
"This means that any significant policy changes are difficult to highlight.
"Besides that, we are also of the opinion that take-off buying activities involving low-priced stocks will be significant in the near future due to positive market sentiment," he said in a research note today.
As of this morning, Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden is leading Republican President Donald Trump, in an electoral vote.
Any candidate must win at least 270 electoral votes out of a total of 538 to occupy the Presidential seat.
Meanwhile, the brokerage firm said the plantation sector is expected to gain further trade interest following the increase in crude palm oil prices which is approaching the level of RM3,100 per tonne.
"We also see the construction sector will continue to gain interest following the presentation of the 2021 Budget which is expected to see mega infrastructure projects highlighted," he said.
Heavyweights saw Maybank rise five sen to RM7.05, Hartalega gained six sen to RM17.90, Public Bank gained 24 sen to RM15.10 and Petronas Gas rose 26 sen to RM16.06.
Fraser and Neave led the gainers with 52 sen to RM31.60, followed by Malaysian Pacific Industries which rose 48 sen to RM23.08 and Hong Leong Financial rose 44 sen to RM14.38.
For active stocks, Berjaya Corporation added three sen to 21.5 sen, Iris Corporation and AT Systematization increased half-a-sen to 31 sen and 12.5 sen respectively while Vsolar was flat at 3.5 sen.
On the index board saw the FBM Emas Index jump 80.34 points to 10,684.34, the FBMT 100 Index rose 76.45 points to 10,485.11 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 81.00 points to 12,812.32.
FBM 70 added 96.17 points to 14,019.17 and FBM ACE jumped 119.52 points to 10,211.69.
The Financial Services Index jumped 133.74 points to 12,115.76, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.87 points to 144.84 and the Plantation Index gained 21.20 points to 6,928.17.
