Bursa Malaysia continued its upward trend in early trade today, driven by hopes that the implementation of the Covid-19 vaccine program will promote further economic recovery soon.
At 9.05am, the market benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 3.33 points to 1,624.25 from 1,620.92 when it closed on Monday.
Bernama reported that the key index opened 2.88 points higher at 1,623.80.
On the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 317 to 195 while 345 counters were unchanged, 1,358 counters untraded and nine others suspended.
Turnover stood at 560.06 million units worth RM275.18 million.
According to Malacca Securities, it is confident that the key index will rise higher amid a brighter economic outlook following the arrival of the Pfizer-BioNTech and other Sinovac vaccine groups as well as stronger crude palm oil and crude oil prices.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Malaysia received 100,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine and 83,070 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech yesterday.
Pfizer will ship 124,020 doses and another 125,190 doses on March 22 and March 29, respectively.
He added that 100,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine will also arrive on March 22.
Malacca Securities is confident investors will continue to focus on stocks driven by economic recovery following the arrival of several vaccine groups this month.
“Meanwhile, technology stocks are expected to rebound modestly, tracking the Nasdaq’s bullish performance overnight.
"In addition, plantation proxies such as the process equipment and fertilizer segments are likely to gain traction given the stronger crude palm oil prices," it said in a research note today.
Wall Street experienced a rebound from its lowest daily decline after the Dow (+0.5%) posted seven consecutive days of gains driven by growing confidence in the economic recovery and progress of vaccine implementation.
The United States Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee (FOMC) will begin a two -day meeting starting today, with the central bank expected to review its economic outlook following US $ 1.9 trillion in fiscal stimulus assistance.
Locally, heavyweights, TNB rose 10 sen to RM10.76, while CIMB and PetChem gained half-a-sen each to RM4.58 and RM8.30, respectively.
RHB added eight sen to RM5.55 and Top Glove rose two sen to RM5.20.
However, Hong Leng Bank declined 42 sen to RM18.80 and Nestle declined 90 sen to RM136.20.
Teladan Setia, which was newly listed on Tuesday, led the active counters when it rose 10.5 sen to 58.5 sen with over 78 million shares traded.
Widad rose four sen to 72 sen, Komarkcorp added 3.5 sen to 38 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 21.66 points to 11,906.47, the FBMT 100 rose 20.66 points to 11,581.96 and the FBM Emas Syariah added 26.89 points to 13,156.52.
FBM 70 added 16.01 points to 15,640.54 and FBM ACE jumped 90.08 points to 10,716.22.
By sector, the Financial Services Index fell 3.11 points to 15,642.87, the Plantation Index increased 26.64 points to 7,182.53 and the Industrial Goods and Services Index increased 0.61 points to 193.05.
