Bursa Malaysia reportedly rose during the early trading session this morning.
The increase coincided with Wall Street's record-breaking new record after Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States (US) who also injected optimistic sentiment among traders.
At 9.05 this morning, the benchmark index of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 10.94 points to 1,612.48 from 1,601.54 when it closed yesterday.
Bernama reported that when trading opened, the key indicator index added 6.89 points to 1,608.43.
In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 317 to 126 while 280 other counters were unchanged, 1,398 untraded and 30 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 278.38 million units worth RM158.6 million.
Meanwhile, Public Investment Bank through its research note today said US stocks closed higher overnight, driven by confidence that the US $ 1.9 trillion stimulus plan put forward by the Biden administration could offset the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 index rose 1.39%, the Dow Jones added 0.83% while the Nasdaq rose 1.97%.
At the local level, brokerage firm Malacca Securities said market uncertainty was still significant following the implementation of the Movement Control Order (PKP) 2.0 nationwide except Sarawak due to the increase in Covid-19 cases.
"For the banking sector, we expect trading interest to return significantly following Bank Negara Malaysia's move to maintain the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) yesterday," he said in a research note today.
The firm also believes that the vaccination measures to be implemented in the first quarter of 2021 will be able to benefit the distribution segment.
Meanwhile, heavyweights saw Maybank rise three sen to RM8.12, Public Bank gained 28 sen to RM21.60, PChem added one sen to RM7.55, Tenaga rose four sen to RM10.00 and Top Glove strengthened eight sen. to RM6.22.
For active stocks, Fintec Global, KTG, Dagang Nexchange and K-Star Sports rose half-a-sen to eight sen, 25.5 sen, 23 sen and 32.5 sen respectively.
HPP rose six sen to 77 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 72.09 points to 11,666.75, the FBMT 100 Index rose 72.14 points to 11,394.01 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 83.08 points to 13,164.4.
The FBM 70 index jumped 75.09 points to 14,985.66 and the FBM ACE rose 148.46 points to 10,998.84.
By sector, the Financial Services Index rose 103.96 points to 14,980.39, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.54 points to 180.3 while the Plantation Index declined 15.96 points to 7,258.75.
