KUALA LUMPUR: A strong performance on Wall Street overnight is helping to support bargain-hunting activity on Bursa Malaysia following three straight sessions of losses.
At 9am, the benchmark FBM KLCI was up 0.93 points to 1,387.67 as investors were heartened by the positive result in the major US indices following the release of economic data that eased recession fears.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6% while the S&P500 rose 1.15% and the Nasdaq leapt 1.65%.
“We believe a turnaround on Wall Street overnight after the consumer confidence for June hit a 17-month high will support bargain hunting activities on the local bourse,” said Malacca Securities Research in a note.
it added that the US rebound may provide buying momentum for local technology stocks.
On Bursa Malaysia, bank stocks were led higher by Maybank up three sen to RM8.74, Public Bank adding two sen to RM3.87 and CIMB rising one sen to RM5.16.
Commodities and plantations plays were also improved as PETRONAS Gas climbed 12 sen to RM16.88 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong gained 20 sen to RM22.42, while Press Metal edged one sen higher to RM4.71.
Meanwhile, the Bursa Malaysia Technology Index rose 0.3% to 60.94 with MPI adding 22 sen to RM28.44, D&O adding five sen to RM3.75 and Greatech gaining five sen to RM4.26.
Top actives included TWL unchanged at 3.5 sen, Classita rising 0.5 sen to 9.5 sen and Tanco gaining 0.5 sen to 57 sen.
– The Star