KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 ― Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, tracking the overnight upbeat close on Wall Street coupled with firmer crude oil price. 

At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.18 points stronger at 1,766.52 from yesterday's close of 1,763.34.

The index opened 2.70 points better at 1,766.04.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 125 to 67 while 157 counters remained unchanged with 1,490 untraded and 55 others were suspended.

Turnover stood at 73.49 million shares worth RM37.31 million.  

Hong Leong Investment Bank said since Brent crude oil price recovered to US$50.20 a barrel on Tuesday,  the FBM KLCI was expected to trend towards the 1,770 points level,  led by oil and gas-related heavyweights.

“Meanwhile, we may also expect a technical rebound within the small-to-middle capitalised stocks and lower liners after the recent profit taking activities,” it said in a note.

However, the research house added that the on-going two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting might see trading remaining cautious.

Meanwhile, Kenanga Research said with the overall technical picture signalling a near-term relief rebound, gains were likely to be limited and short-lived. 

Of the heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM9.63, Public Bank and CIMB improved four sen each to RM20.46 and RM6.39, respectively, while Tenaga and Petronas Chemicals remained unchanged at RM14.22 and RM6.96, respectively.

Among active counters, Sterling Progress was half-a-sen better at 17 sen, UMWOG edged up 1.5 sen to 32.5 sen but Advancecon gave up one sen to RM1.01.

GNB and KGroup both remained flat at eight sen and 3.5 sen, respectively.

The FBM Emas Index increased 21.70 points to 12,571.29, the FBMT 100 Index rose 22.79 points to 12,216.64 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 13.12 points to 12,730.68.

The FBM 70 jumped 30.85 points to 14,908.46 and the FBM Ace was 5.21 points higher at 6,579.93.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index perked 2.37 points to 7,840.83, the Finance Index leaped 30.94 points to 16,726.08 and the Industrial Index advanced 2.18 points to 3,285.80. ― Bernama