Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher this morning following the emergence of buying activity during low stock prices as well as followed by profit -taking activities.
At 9.03am, the market -benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 0.69 points or 0.04% to 1,579.14 from last Friday's close of 1,578.45.
Bernama reported that the key index opened 2.99 points higher at 1,581.44.
Price movements in the market were positive with gainers outpacing losers 285 to 132 while 279 counters were unchanged, 1,444 untraded and 10 others suspended.
Turnover was 344.42 million shares worth RM165.35 million.
According to Malacca Securities, based on indications from the horizontal movement on Wall Street, investors may not enter the market and at the same time continue to monitor the Malaysian industrial production index scheduled to be announced on Friday and the European Central Bank's interest rate decision on Thursday.
“Also, we also expect sentiment to continue to weaken for tech stocks as US President Joe Biden has expanded the list of Chinese companies banned from investing in the US.
"In terms of commodities, the prices of crude palm oil and Brent oil are forecast to decline slightly," he said.
The research firm added that transportation and logistics counters are likely to remain in focus following last Thursday's strong surge and that these counters should perform well under the Covid-19 environment.
Transportation and logistics counters recorded the highest increase today, up 2.18%.
"Besides that, we project that the chemical -related sector will remain attractive.
"Also, with the Covid-19 case subsiding, recovery-themed stocks deserve focus," the firm added.
Among heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM8.18, Public Bank, IHH and CIMB were two sen higher at RM4.22, RM5.32 and RM4.47 respectively, while PetChem declined six sen to RM8.02 and Press Metal declined two sen to RM5.19.
For active counters, Hibiscus rose 10 sen to 75.5 sen, NWP rose one sen to 19.5 sen and Serba Dinamik declined four sen to 72.5 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 22.76 points to 11,540.56, the FBMT 100 Index added 16.73 points to 11,222.31, the FBM Emas Syariah Index rose 11.84 points to 12,740.14, the FBM ACE added 6.09 points to 7,806.39 and the FBM 70 gained 68.09 points to 15,008.00.
By sector, the Financial Services Index strengthened 44.99 points to 15,189.67, the Industrial Products and Services Index fell 0.20 points to 193.18 and the Plantation Index rose 24.30 points to 6,794.10.
Bursa Malaysia Bhd and its subsidiaries were closed yesterday in conjunction with the public holiday of the Official Birthday of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.
