KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — Bursa Malaysia opened higher today in line with Wall Street’s upbeat performance overnight.

At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.23 points to 1,428.92 from 1,424.69 at yesterday’s close.

The key index opened 1.07 points higher at 1,425.76.

The broader market was also positive as advancers edged past decliners 172 to 107, while 235 counters were unchanged, 1,779 untraded and 15 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 209.21 million units worth RM85.81 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said Wall Street marched higher with the Dow Jones Industrial Average advancing by 0.52 per cent, after the softening of US preliminary purchasing managers index data highlighted that the interest rate upcycles may come to near a tipping point.

Hence, it said the strong buying interest among the key index components continued to nudge the FBM KLCI higher with the moderating inflationary pressure in June also providing a near-term impetus to the local bourse.

Yesterday, the Department of Statistics Malaysia reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) continued to ease in June to 2.4 per cent, the lowest level recorded so far in 2023.

“The lower liners, however, endured another session of weakness on the back of extended profit-taking, which we deemed to be healthy at this point of time, premised on the overbought conditions,” it said in a note today.

In a meantime, investors will continue to keep a close watch on the US corporate earnings releases and interest rate decision from the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added three sen to RM8.95, CIMB rose five sen to RM5.40, Petronas Chemicals gained three sen to RM6.53, Public Bank was flat at RM3.98, and Tenaga Nasional declined two sen to RM9.44.

Of the actives, newly-listed MYMBN bagged 8.5 sen to 29.5 sen, Velesto Energy was flat at 23 sen, Classita Holdings eased half-a-sen to 14.5 sen, CTOS Digital eased one sen to RM1.38, and Pestech International shed two sen to 27.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index gained 27.86 points to 10,534.94, the FBMT 100 Index was 27.17 points better at 10,223.06, the FBM 70 Index perked up 23.881 points to 13,922.98, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 18.89 points to 10,829.77, and the FBM ACE Index climbed 2.47 points to 5,322.33.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index garnered 64.33 points to 15,886.62, the Energy Index rose 5.92 points to 829.53, the Industrial Products and Services Index improved 0.62 of-a-point to 163.60, and the Plantation Index increased 9.09 points to 7,144.40. — Bernama