Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher this morning with sentiment boosted by the announcement of the PEMERKASA+ stimulus package yesterday to help businesses and the people as the country enters the full movement restriction phase today.
At 9.01am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) index rose 2.38 points or 0.15 per cent to 1,585.93 from 1,583.55 at the close of trading on Monday.
Bernama reported that the key index opened 2.19 points higher at 1,585.74.
Price movements in the market were positive with gainers outpacing losers by 200 to 102 while 226 counters were unchanged, 1,605 untraded and nine others suspended.
Turnover was 246.80 million units worth RM96.78 million.
According to Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd, market sentiment may be helped by the PEMERKASA + stimulus package announced yesterday ahead of the full movement control order.
The Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday announced the PEMERKASA Plus stimulus package worth RM40 billion with three main objectives, namely to enhance public health capacity, pursue a caring agenda and support business continuity.
“Investors may see buying interest in important/necessary sectors that can operate during the PKP period. As for commodities, the price of crude palm oil fell below RM4,000 while the price of oil rose above US $ 69 a barrel, ”the brokerage firm said in a note.
The firm added that with the implementation of full movement restrictions across the country, traders are also expected to focus on sectors such as transportation and logistics stocks, packaging and key consumers.
"Besides that, traders may see buying activity when stock prices are cheap amid higher oil prices following a significant drop yesterday. In the meantime, vaccine -related themes will also increase after the government works to accelerate the progress of vaccination, ”said Malacca Securities.
Meanwhile, Rakutan Trade Sdn Bhd thinks the regional market will remain mixed today.
"In the domestic market, following the spontaneous reaction yesterday following the announcement of the full movement restriction, we believe the market will recover today. Therefore, we expect the FBM KLCI to tend to trade in the range of 1,590-1,600 today," he said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank declined four sen to RM8.14, Public Bank declined one sen to RM4.20, PetChem and IHH rose five sen to RM8.10 and RM5.35 respectively.
Other major losers included BAT which declined 56 sen to RM15.20, Serba Dinamik which declined 33.5 sen to 79.5 sen and Hexza Corp which was nine sen lower at RM1.06.
As for active stocks, Sunzen added four sen to 29 sen, Focus Dynamics rose one sen to 55 sen while Tanco was flat at 14.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 16.35 points to 11,512.16 and the FBMT 100 Index rose 17.06 points to 11,215.65.
The FBM Emas Syariah Index added 18.10 points to 12,791.01, the FBM 70 increased 23.33 points to 14,786.23 and the FBM ACE rose 52.67 points to 7,733.93.
By sector, the Financial Services Index gained 22.91 points to 15,032.71, the Plantation Index rose 2.27 points to 6,884.67 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.47 points better at 191.33.
