KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 — Bursa Malaysia rebounded to open higher today, taking its cue from the Wall Street’s strong overnight performance last Friday.

At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 6.77 points to 1,544.79 from Friday’s close of 1,538.02.

The benchmark index opened 1.08 points firmer at 1,539.10.

However, on the broader market, the sentiment was negative with losers leading gainers 211 to 191, while 291 counters were unchanged, 1,567 untraded and 23 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 256.80 million units worth RM115.54 million.

In a note, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the Wall Street closed higher last Friday as investors are looking towards mega-cap technology companies with growth potential from artificial intelligence to outrun inflation.

“Both the European and Asian stock markets ended higher, the latter ended higher after China’s manufacturing PMI data came in line with consensus estimates,” it said.

Hence, the brokerage believes that the positive sentiment may spill over towards stocks on the local front this week.

“We expect traders to look at the commodities sectors after the firmer Brent oil and gold prices; the oil and gas counters may continue to charge higher, while gold-related stocks may trend positively this week,” it added.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank perked six sen to RM9.51, CIMB inched up 13 sen to RM6.47, Public Bank was two sen higher at RM4.38 and Tenaga Nasional went up four sen to RM11.34, while Petronas Chemicals slid three sen to RM6.90.

As for the actives, Harvest Miracle Capital gained half-a-sen to 15.5 sen, Hong Seng Consolidated and TWL Holdings were flat at 1.5 sen and 3.5 sen, respectively, while Widad Group lost half-a-sen to 11.5 sen and Jaks Resources slipped one sen to 16.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 33.66 points firmer at 11,443.97, the FBMT 100 Index added 34.72 points to 11,109.49 and the FBM ACE Index gained 4.58 points to 4,764.94, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index eased 0.39 of-a-point to 11,471.16 and the FBM 70 Index decreased 9.59 points to 15,375.13

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose by 100.29 points to 17,275.52, the Plantation Index was up by 17.33 points to 7,241.19, and the Energy Index improved by 5.89 points to 915.54, while the Industrial Products and Services Index reduced by 0.26 of-a-point to 175.52. — Bernama