KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — Bursa Malaysia extended yesterday’s gains to open slightly higher on Friday, supported by bargain-hunting activities and a bullish Wall Street performance overnight.

At 9.15am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) edged up 1.01 points to 1,542.42 from Thursday’s close of 1,541.41. The benchmark index opened 0.15 of a point better at 1,541.56.

On the broader market, gainers led decliners 251 to 187 while 328 counters were unchanged, 1,569 untraded and 18 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 358.46 million units worth RM155.56 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng noted that the FBM KLCI rebounded on Thursday as bargain-hunting activities emerged following an earlier sell-off.

“We believe that buying of local stocks will continue following the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) news on the interest rate, which strongly lifted investor sentiment.

“The local bourse follows a triumphant day on Wall Street, with the three major indexes hitting new closing highs,” he told Bernama.

The US central bank reiterated yesterday its forecast for three rate cuts for this year.

Thong said the S&P 500 surged above 5,200 for the first time while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied by 0.68 per cent, settling just below the 40,000 mark.

“As such, we anticipate the benchmark index to trend within the range of 1,540-1,550 for today,” he said.

Among the heavyweight stocks, Maybank gained one sen to RM9.56 while Public Bank, CIMB, Tenaga Nasional and Petronas Chemicals were all flat at RM4.22, RM6.55, RM11.54 and RM6.87, respectively.

For the actives, ACE market debutant Alpha IVF slipped half-a-sen to 31.5 sen, Sarawak Cable added three sen to 19 sen and Avaland increased 1.5 sen to 36 sen. Both Xin Hwa and Iconic inched up one sen to 25.5 sen and nine sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 7.86 points to 11,544.35 and the FBMT 100 Index was 7.71 points firmer at 11,193.61 while the FBM Emas Shariah Index picked up 9.25 points to 11,641.55.

The FBM 70 Index jumped 12.47 points to 15,911.15, and the FBM ACE Index perked up 29.55 points to 4,864.88.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index lost 0.23 of-a-point to 7,352.44, the Industrial Products and Services Index declined 0.16 of-a-point to 178.86 and the Energy Index shed 2.63 points to 931.98.

However, the Financial Services Index expanded by 10.25 points to 17,153.93. — Bernama