KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 —  Bursa Malaysia’s FBM KLCI opened lower but regained its upward momentum thereafter as Top Glove rebounded from previous session losses, contributing about 3.5 points to the barometre index.

At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) increased 5.10 points to 1,590.66 compared with yesterday’s close of 1,585.56.

The market had opened 2.24 points lower at 1,583.32.

Market breadth was positive as gainers surpassed losers 250 to 153, while 297 counters were unchanged, 1,265 untraded and 28 others suspended.

Total volume jumped to 1.13 billion units worth RM327.30 million.

Malacca Securities said it sees rotational play taking place as investors shifted to other sectors apart from healthcare stocks.

"While we think that plantation stocks will remain on upbeat mode, energy stocks may make a gradual comeback on the higher crude oil prices after Opec and allies will taper production cuts to 7.7 million barrels per day from 9.7 million barrels per day until December 2020 following the prospects of improving demand, coupled with the surprise draw-down in US inventory,” it said in a note today.

Yesterday, the Energy Information Administration reported that US crude inventories fell by 7.5 million barrels for the week ended July 10, far exceeded a forecast by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts for an average decline of 2.1 million barrels.

A day before, the American Petroleum Institute said that US crude supplies fell by 8.3 million barrels for the week ended July 10.

However this morning, the Brent crude fell to US$43.74 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped to US$41.11 a barrel, after hitting their highest settlement in more than four months yesterday.

Having said that, Malacca Securities reckoned investors will be keeping an eye on China’s second quarter 2020 gross domestic product data today as a yardstick to economic recovery performance after lifting the lockdown.

On the domestic front, heavyweights — Top Glove was 78 sen higher at RM22.58, Nestle up RM1 to RM142.00, while Axiata, TNB and CIMB added two sen each to RM3.43, RM11.38 and RM3.69 respectively.

In contrast, Maybank dropped three sen to RM7.88 and Petronas Dagangan declined 20 sen to RM20.80.

Of the most active, XOX edged up half-a-sen to 10.5 sen, Netx was flat at one sen and MQTech lost half-a-sen to 11 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 36.60 points to 11,221.25, the FBMT 100 Index increased 36.09 points to 11,073.04 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 65.61 points to 12,873.03.

The FBM 70 added 47.75 points to 13,910.70 and the FBM ACE appreciated 41.88 points to 7,278.14.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index slipped 17.88 points to 13,516.33, the Plantation Index eased 0.51 of-a-point to 6,961.84 and the Industrial Products and Services Index went up 0.12 of-a-point to 137.89. — Bernama