KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — Bursa Malaysia opened higher for the second consecutive day contributed by positive market momentum that resulted in higher financial and small-cap indices.

After posting weaker quarterly results last week and experiencing lower share prices, the banking sector has slowly made a comeback on the local bourse, posting higher share prices at the opening today, though market players are still focusing on the upcoming Bank Negara monetary policy meeting scheduled for Sept 10.

Maybank, Public Bank and CIMB rose six sen, 16 sen and five sen each and altogether they contributed 3.637 points to the composite index.

At 9.11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.33 points to 1,525.76 from Tuesday’s close of 1,521.43.

The barometer index opened 3.69 points higher at 1,525.12.

Market breadth was positive as gainers led losers 334 to 179, while 348 counters were unchanged, 1,145 untraded and 25 others suspended.

Trading volume stood at 1.2 billion shares worth RM326.70 million.

Rakuten Trade in its note today said Wall Street rebounded on hopes that the US economic recovery would remain on track.

"The DJI Average rose almost 216 points to hover around the 28,700 level. Notwithstanding this, we reckon regional bourses to be mixed in the absence of any apparent catalysts,” the brokerage firm said.

On the local front, it expects the FBM KLCI to remain lacklustre as the correction on banking and glove counters persists, while seeing liquidity shifting towards the lower liners amid the ongoing rotational plays.

Of the heavyweights, rubber glove maker Top Glove rose two sen to RM26.52, Tenaga added six sen to RM11.04, but Hartalega lost 10 sen to RM16.36 and IHH was one sen lower at RM5.32.

Among the actives, technology-linked counters namely DGB Asia, MQ Technology and Vsolar were actively trading, tracking the rally in US tech stocks.

DGB inched down half-a-sen to five sen while both MQ Technology and Vsolar added half-a-sen to 24 sen and 6.5 sen respectively.

Top gainers are still led by tech-linked company Malaysian Pacific Industries, which jumped 78 sen to RM17.78, followed by MSCM which rose 28 sen to RM1.78 while plantation-linked company Kwantas Corp added 22 sen to RM1.37.

Of the top losers, Hong Leong Financial declined 18 sen to RM12.82, Kossan Rubber dropped 12 sen to RM15.68 and Hartalega shed 10 sen to RM16.36 due to profit-taking.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 42.06 points to 11,116.52, the FBMT 100 Index was 30.64 points firmer at 10,900.08 and the FBM 70 appreciated 40.46 points to 14,801.78.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 26.90 points to 13,247.82, while the FBM ACE rose 3.59 points to 11,208.02.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index strengthened 74.75 points to 12,586.73, the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 0.63 point to 136.26 and the Plantation Index added 15.00 points to 7,099.80. — Bernama