KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — Bursa Malaysia extended its gains to open above the 1,600 psychological mark today as strong performance on Wall Street overnight signalled hope for the upcoming rate cuts, a dealer said.

At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.87 points to 1,602.26 from yesterday’s close of 1,597.39.

The benchmark index opened 3.46 points higher at 1,600.85.

On the broader market, gainers led decliners 225 to 119, while 306 counters were unchanged, 1,663 untraded and 14 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 167.87 million units worth RM83.01 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street maintained its uptrend on hopes that the Federal Reserve would cut rates sooner rather than later.

On the home front, he noted that the FBM KLCI has had an impressive performance since mid-April, adding four per cent as foreign funds returned and buying in blue chips continued.

“Judging by the prevailing uptrend, our 2024 target of 1,660 could be easily achievable as the local bourse remains reasonably priced,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank added one sen to RM9.84, Public Bank rose two sen to RM4.22, Tenaga Nasional gained four sen to RM12.42, and CIMB and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM6.75 and RM6.30, respectively.

As for the actives, Ingenieur was unchanged at 11 sen, SNS and Eversendai increased one sen each to 48 sen and 47 sen, respectively, and K-One inched up half-a-sen to 15 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 31.18 points to 12,065.45, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 29.56 points to 11,686.54, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 25.31 points to 12,255.23.

The FBM 70 Index climbed 18.16 points to 16,853.81, and the FBM ACE Index gained 0.38 of-a-point to 5,141.29.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index garnered 37.25 points to 17,460.86, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.34 of-a-point to 192.28, the Plantation Index rose 20.63 points to 7,413.77, and the Energy Index picked up 1.17 points to 963.88. — Bernama