KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 ― Bursa Malaysia rebounded from yesterday's losses to trade higher in the early session today, despite the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine that continue to agitate sentiment as Wall Street closed broadly lower, a dealer said.

At 9.06am, the benchmark index was 3.75 points better at 1,580.71 from yesterday's close of 1,576.96.

The bellwether index opened 5.30 points firmer at 1,582.26.

Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 205 to 153, while 227 counters were unchanged, 1,673 untraded and 18 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 145.38 million units worth RM84.81 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said it believes the market will trade in heightened volatility and may persist at least for the near term following another selloff on Wall Street overnight.

"Meanwhile, investors may keep an eye on Malaysia’s inflation rate which will be released tomorrow,” it said in a note today.

On focus sectors, the brokeage said buying interest may be seen in metal-related stocks, as well as the energy sector, given the elevated underlying prices of Brent oil and aluminium.

"Elsewhere, we believe investors may look into banking and consumer stocks amid the ongoing earnings season. as well as riding the recovery theme,” it said.

However, it said technical indicators remained positive as moving average convergence divergence (MACD) stayed above the zero level, while the elative strength index (RSI) remained above the 50 level.

"Resistance is located around 1,600-1,620, while support is now set at 1,570,” it added.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank bagged two sen to RM8.74, Public Bank gained one sen to RM4.35, Petronas Chemicals improved nine sen to RM9.23, while CIMB Group unchanged at RM5.5 and IHH Healthcare shed two sen to RM6.28.

Among the actives, SMTrack firmed half-a-sen to 26 sen, MSM Malaysia Holdings fell 19.5 sen to 92.5, and Hibiscus Petroleum shrank two sen to RM1.16.

Top gainers Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) leapt 60 sen to RM25.60, Malaysian Pacific climbed 42 sen to RM35.32, and United Plantations added 30 sen to RM14.84.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went up 25.98 points to 11,269.48, the FBMT 100 Index gained 25.85 points to 10,946.18, the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 34.13 points to 11,958.11, the FBM 70 ticked up 31.09 points to 13,418.15, and the FBM ACE advanced 22.94 points to 6,049.09.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index widened 25.40 points to 16,293.73, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.56 of-a-point to 208.67, and the Plantation Index climbed 64.16 points to 7,844.39. ― Bernama