Bursa Malaysia bounced back from yesterday's losses to open higher this morning, driven by the announcement of several corporate financial results yesterday that provided a positive catalyst to the market.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI benchmark index (FBM KLCI) jumped 12.07 points or 0.77% to 1,577.12 from 1,565.05 when it closed yesterday afternoon.
Bernama reported that the key index opened 5.96 points stronger at 1,571.01.
In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 279 to 223 while 340 counters were unchanged, 1,356 untraded and 15 others suspended.
Turnover was 881.52 million units worth RM245.11 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said that although local exchange transactions are expected to remain volatile today, the announcement of better corporate financial results could be a catalyst for the market.
"Therefore, we expect the benchmark index to hover between 1,570 and 1,580 today," he said in a research note.
Meanwhile, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd expects the arrival of the second batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines today as well as the distribution of vaccines will continue to attract buying interest in themed stocks in moving forward.
"Also, traders will focus on the high-income sector during this financial results reporting season," he explained.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose 10 sen to RM7.99, Public Bank rose five sen to RM4.13, Petronas Chemicals and Tenaga gained 11 sen to RM7.61 and RM9.97 respectively, while CIMB was six sen stronger at RM4 .25.
The most active stock, Metronic Global gained two sen to 12.5 sen and its warrant rose 2.5 sen to 7.5 sen, XOX rose 1.5 sen to 10.5 sen and its warrant increased one sen to three sen while AirAsia X was flat at 10 sen.
The most profitable stocks included Nestle which jumped 70 sen to RM136.00, Takaful which rose 22 sen to RM4.58, KLK rose 18 sen to RM23.40, Alcom 13.5 sen higher to 69.5 sen while Frontken rose 12 sen to RM5. 44.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 76.39 points to 11,627.20, the FBMT 100 Index added 71.26 points to 11,300.09 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index rose 64.15 points to 13,042.65.
FBM 70 strengthened 39.13 points to 15,468.61 and FBM ACE increased 48.48 points to 11,167.83.
By sector, the Financial Services Index jumped 131.19 points to 14,828.02, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 1.51 points to 182.09 and the Plantation Index rose 22.30 points to 7,165.48.
