Bursa Malaysia traded slightly higher today despite the Wall Street market showing a flat performance on Friday and lower -than -expected US Treasury yields.
The U.S. jobs report that came into focus last weekend recorded a drastic drop of 235,000 jobs in August compared to the expectations of economists who expected an additional 720,000 jobs.
As at 9.43am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) index rose 1.20 points to 1,590.39 from 1,589.19 at the close of the market on Friday.
According to Bernama, the key index opened 1.48 points higher at 1,590.67.
On the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers by 328 to 262, while 362 counters were unchanged, 1,286 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 721.03 million units worth RM335.99 million.
According to Malacca Securities, investors are expected to await the Malaysian unemployment rate and Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) decision on the interest rate to be released on Thursday.
He added that they hoped that the tone of the recovery in economic activity would continue to record a surge supported by the rising vaccination rate.
Meanwhile, recovery sectors such as banking, building materials, consumers as well as transportation and logistics are expected to continue to gain investor attention.
For heavyweights, Maybank rose three sen to RM8.39, Petronas Chemicals rose two sen to RM8.26 and IHH Healthcare jumped five sen to RM6.38.
Public Bank and TNB fell two sen each to RM4.11 and RM10.34.
For active stocks, Emico Holdings rose 10 sen to 47 sen and Vortex Consolidated, Avillion and KNM Group rose half-a-sen to 8.5 sen, 13.5 sen and 28 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBMT 100 Index rose 8.48 points to 11,301.47, the FBM 70 jumped 32.70 points to 15,132.95 and the FBM ACE declined 49.34 points to 7,202.44.
The FBM Emas Index rose 11.25 points to 11,606.23 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 15.24 points to 12,709.99.
By sector, the Financial Services Index fell 11.02 points to 15.525.75, the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.92 points to 200.84 and the Plantation Index jumped 3.53 points to 6,703.22.
