Bursa Malaysia Opens Higher as Investors Eye Bargain Buys

By Subaashinee Kupusamy,

5th September : Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Thursday, driven by bargain-hunting activities following a dip the previous day. Investors are cautiously awaiting the outcome of Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting today.

At 9:05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 3.09 points to 1,673.33, up from Wednesday’s close of 1,670.24. The index started the day slightly higher at 1,670.55.

Market breadth was positive, with 150 gainers outpacing 126 losers, while 239 counters remained unchanged. A total of 1,940 counters were untraded, and eight were suspended. Trading volume stood at 122.28 million shares valued at RM84.87 million.

Thong Pak Leng, Vice-President of Equity Research at Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd, noted that Wall Street closed mixed overnight ahead of the U.S. non-farm payrolls report. The Dow Jones edged up by 38 points, while the Nasdaq shed 52 points as traders anticipated a larger rate cut from the Federal Reserve’s upcoming meeting.

Locally, Thong observed some buying in blue-chip stocks as the index found solid support at current levels. He predicted the FBM KLCI to trade within the range of 1,670 to 1,680 throughout the day.

Among heavyweight stocks, CIMB surged 11 cents to RM8.32, while Public Bank added two cents to RM4.78. Meanwhile, newly listed Steel Hawk soared 130% to 34.5 cents, leading the active counters.

In sectoral performance, the Financial Services Index gained 85.35 points, while the Energy and Plantation indices also showed modest increases as stated in Berita Harian.