KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street’s positive overnight performance.  

At 9.09am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 1.68 points, or 0.10 per cent, to 1,601.26 from Tuesday’s close of 1,599.58. The index had opened 3.83 points higher at 1,603.41. 

Across the broader market, advancers outnumbered decliners 236 to 81, while 224 counters were unchanged, 2,320 remained untraded, and 20 were suspended.

Turnover stood at 154.28 million units worth RM67.68 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said the brokerage viewed the market undertone as still cautious due to today’s low trading volume.

“For today, we anticipated the index to hover within the 1,595-1,605 range,” he said in a note today.

Among the heavyweight stocks, Public Bank added one sen to RM4.74, CIMB grew two sen to RM7.17, IHH Healthcare gained eight sen to RM7.99, Maybank was flat at RM9.95, while TNB fell four sen to RM13.02.  

In active trade, NWE Resources rose 2.5 sen to 22.5 sen, VS Industry garnered one sen to 34 sen, SLGC went up half a sen to 25 sen, Talam Transform and GIIB were flat at 7.5 sen and 70.5 sen, respectively, while Zetrix AI and Ni Hsin fell half a sen each to five sen and 46.5 sen. 

Malaysian Pacific Industries led the top gainers, surging RM1.36 to RM41.38, followed by Vitrox, which rose by 24 sen to RM10.54. Hong Leong Bank was up 18 sen to RM21.38, and MI Technology rose 17 sen to RM6.55.  

On the losing side, KESM shed 10 sen to RM4.36, TM fell six sen to RM7.64, PPB eased five sen to RM8.55, and TNB slid four sen to RM13.02. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index firmed 25.73 points to 11,933.33, while the FBM Top 100 Index garnered 21.97 points to 11,733.40.

The FBM Mid 70 Index rose 72.60 points to 17,123.80, the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 29.71 points higher at 11,878.57, and the FBM ACE Index grew 43.30 points to 5,329.78. 

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index was up by 35.25 points to 18,594.22,  the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.01 of a point to 174.37, the Plantation Index fell 1.77 points to 8,583.37, while the Energy Index added 2.56 points to 825.44. — Bernama