KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 ― Shares on Bursa Malaysia opened higher this morning as bargain hunting activities lifted the market, following yesterday's heavy selling.

At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) stood at 1,848.23, up 5.51 points from 1,842.62 at yesterday's close.

The key index opened 5.56 points better at 1,848.18 this morning.

A dealer said local traders also took cue from the overnight rise on Wall Street.

"Market players are now betting that US President Donald Trump will back down on his planned imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminium, thus diminishing fears of a trade war,” he added.

On the technical front, Kenanga Research said with key momentum indicators still displaying weaknesses, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI would likely continue range bound and hover between 1840 and 1883.

Market breadth was positive with 349 gainers against 64 losers, while 186 counters were unchanged, 1,274 untraded and 21 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 244.88 million shares worth RM119.87 million.

Among heavyweights, Maybank was unchanged at RM10.42, Public Bank added 10 sen to RM23, Tenaga lost six sen to RM15.60 and CIMB rose one sen to RM7.21.

Of the actively-traded stocks, Wegmans was 1.5 sen higher at 30.5 sen, NWP increased eight sen to 21 sen and Vivocom was half-a-sen better at eight sen.

The FBM Emas Index improved 54.76 points to 13,096.63, the FBMT 100 Index was 50.73 points higher at 12,822.87 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 60.21 points to 13,283.47.

The FBM 70 jumped 102.93 points to 15,839.43 and the FBM Ace bagged 67.12 points to 6,090.74.

Sector-wise, the Finance Index inched up 41.12 points to 18,077.79, the Industrial Index increased 10.31 points to 3,217.69 and the Plantation Index rose 23.93 points to 8,099.79. ― Bernama