The technology and banking counters continued to drive Bursa Malaysia up early in today's trading with the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI key index index opened 1.31 points high at 1,638.0.
Bernama reported that at 9.10am, the index rose 1.64 points to 1,638.33 from 1,636.69 when it closed yesterday.
In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 301 to 243, while 278 counters were unchanged, 1,277 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 422.02 million units worth RM275.43 billion.
In a note today, Rakuten Trade is confident that strong bank shares yesterday showed that foreign funds may return to the local stock exchange with an inflow of around RM750 million since January 7.
Overall, the FBM KLCI is likely to trade at 1,630 to 1,640 levels throughout the day.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities in a note today said investors had raised concerns during the first day of the Movement Control Order (PKP) 2.0 as key economic sectors continued to open.
"The key index may be slightly affected following yesterday's rise, but we expect the decline to be limited," he said, adding that low-priced stocks saw some improvement as the index recorded significant progress yesterday following the recent strengthening.
In addition, the firm added, traders are also expected to focus on stocks with definite earnings ahead of the reporting season in February.
“Sectors that may be of concern include furniture, technology and gloves. Meanwhile, we are confident that financial services counters may trade higher due to the increase in momentum during the last hour of trading yesterday, ”he said.
Banking counters continued to dominate the heavyweights list with Public Bank rising 42 sen to RM21.82, while Maybank and CIMB added three sen, respectively, to RM8.45 and RM4.10 respectively.
However, the healthcare-related index counter continued to decline with Hartalega declining 38 sen to RM12.62, while Top Glove was down 15 sen to RM6.48, Supermax declined 19 sen to RM6.92 and IHH fell three sen to RM5.42.
Among actives, Iris gained two sen to 40.5 sen, AE Multiholdings one sen to 13.5 sen and Kanger International added half-a-sen to 15.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 11.73 points to 11,760.49, the FBMT 100 Index added 12.18 points to 11,50243 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index declined 29.79 points to 13,225.19.
FBM 70 added 18.26 points to 14,839.34 and FBM ACE increased 22.68 points to 10,714.71.
By sector, the Financial Services Index rose 123.89 points to 15,189.63, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.78 points to 176.32 and the Plantation Index rose 7.84 points to 7,490.96.
