Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, driven by buying activity involving index-linked counters led by Public Bank.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) key index rose 11.27 points to 1,642.97 after adding 9.29 points to 1,640.99 when trading opened.
According to Bernama, Public Bank contributed 10,742 points to the increase in the index after adding RM1.42 to RM19.88 with a total of 2.77 million shares traded.
Yesterday, the banking group announced a proposed bonus issue of up to 15.53 billion bonus shares on a four-share basis for each existing shareholding.
In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 305 to 230 while 345 other counters were unchanged, 1,259 untraded and 18 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 654.11 million units worth RM343.07 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd expects that broad-based sentiment will continue to be significant while vaccine-related stocks that saw sales activity yesterday may instead be the target of buying at low prices today.
The brokerage firm said Top Glove's financial performance announcement today is also likely to drive interest in glove stock counters as well as healthcare-related personal protective equipment counters.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd, on the other hand, described the healthcare sector as likely to continue to be the focus following the increase in Covid-19 cases.
"We expect the healthcare segment to bounce back at least in today's early trading session following the development of Top Glove-led healthcare stocks ahead of the announcement of its financial performance," the firm said in a research note.
In addition, heavyweights saw Maybank rise two sen to RM8.26, IHH Healthcare gained eight sen to RM5.63 while Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM7.60.
Energy was down two sen to RM10.74, Top Glove was down one sen to RM7.08 and Hartalega was down 16 sen to RM14.50.
For active stocks, Pegasus and Fintec were flat at three sen and 10.5 sen respectively, XOX fell half-a-sen to 10 sen and P.A Resources declined one sen to 17.5 sen respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Gold Index added 72.92 points to 11,888.71, the FBMT 100 Index added 57.27 points to 11,625.9 and the FBM ACE gained 57.31 points to 10,914.9.
FBM 70 decreased 12.21 points to 15,355.33 while the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 19.29 points to 13,580.59.
Meanwhile, the Industrial Products and Services Index decreased 0.32 points to 175.2, the Plantation Index declined 24.19 points to 7,345.52 but the Financial Services Index jumped 268.25 points to 14,832.61.
