Bursa Malaysia opened lower for a while before rebounding, taking cues from the mixed performance of the United States (US) stock index last Friday.
Wall Street ended somewhat mixed as confidence in an immediate solution to the US stimulus package waned.
At 9.12am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 3.45 points to 1,688.03 from 1,684.58 when it closed on Friday last week.
According to Bernama, the FBM KLCI opened lower by 2.12 points to 1,682.46.
The overall market price movement was positive with gainers outpacing losers 394 to 350 while 381 counters were unchanged, 1,019 untraded and 22 others suspended.
Turnover was 979.90 million units worth RM533.51 million.
In a research note today, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said that although sentiment on Wall Street was mixed last week, trading interest in the local market remained strong.
Good developments on vaccines such as the immediate launch of the Covid-19 vaccine in the United Kingdom (UK), the US and Canada in the near future lead to confidence that the economic recovery is going well.
"With the expected recovery in business activity, we project Brent crude oil and palm oil prices to remain strong, between US $ 45 to US $ 50 and RM3,200 to RM3,400, in the near future," he said.
As for the focus sector, it said market participants would focus on the banking, gambling, shipping, plantation, oil and gas sectors, apart from construction.
"For the construction sector, it is likely to be in the attention of traders following the re-emergence of news on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail project, and this will increase trading sentiment in the construction and building appliances segment this week," he said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank and Petronas Chemicals added one sen each to RM8.92 and RM7.90, Public Bank rose 46 sen to RM22.36, Tenaga rose 28 sen to RM10.62, while Top Glove declined 30 sen. to RM6 .60.
Among the most active stocks, MLabs warrants rose two sen to 2.5 sen, Iris and Sino Hua-An, up half a sen to 39.5 sen and 13.5 sen, respectively, Advance Synergy added 1.5 sen to 17.5 sen, while MLabs declined one sen to 8.5. sen.
On the index board, the FBM Gold Index rose 8.83 points better at 12,094.54 and the FBMT 100 Index rose 11.48 points to 11,743.39.
FBM 70 fell 35.22 points to 15,334.79, the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 76.98 points to 13,354.55 and FBM ACE fell 75.84 points to 10,995.26.
Meanwhile, the Industrial Products and Services Index declined 0.41 points to 177.26, the Plantation Index declined 59.83 points to 7,352.26, while the Financial Services Index jumped 168.93 points to 16,215.06.
