KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 — Bursa Malaysia moved higher in early trade today, tracking a rally on Wall Street overnight.

At 9.15am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 5.10 points to 1,670.75 from Thursday’s close of 1,665.65. The benchmark index opened 5.03 points higher at 1,670.68.

In the broader market, gainers led decliners 400 to 105, with 273 counters unchanged, 1,697 untraded and 32 suspended. Turnover amounted to 301.88 million shares worth RM224.0 million.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd expects the local technology sector to track Wall Street’s performance overnight as American tech stocks surged to new highs following the recent US interest rate cut. And with the ringgit continuing its uptrend, sectors such as consumer, utility, financial, and automotive are likely to benefit, it added. "Additionally, we believe earnings from data center projects will start materialising in the next few quarters, so the construction, building materials and property sectors could perform well heading into 2025,” the brokerage said.

As of 9.24am, the ringgit was traded at 4.1945/2000 against the US dollar from Thursday’s 28-month high of 4.2025/2105.

Of the heavyweight stocks, Maybank, Public Bank and TNB all gained two sen each to RM10.66, RM4.71 and RM14.66, respectively.

CIMB added eight sen to RM8.37, IHH Healthcare gained one sen to RM7.16 and Hong Leong Bank garnered 18 sen to RM21.28. MISC and Petronas Gas were flat at RM8.14 and RM17.86, respectively, while CelcomDigi fell two sen to RM3.78.

Among the active counters, Genetec jumped 8.5 sen to RM1.03 while Cape EMS and JCY International both gained one sen to 39 sen and 50.5 sen, respectively. Globetronics gained two sen to 62.5 sen, Top Glove grew three sen to RM1.07 and Alpha IVF was flat at 36 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index expanded by 64.97 points to 12,553.68, the FBM Emas Shariah Index garnered 64.41 points to 12,443.49 and the FBMT 100 Index went up 59.10 points to 12,246.91. The FBM 70 Index rose 167.42 points to 17,970.68 and the FBM ACE Index chalked up 28.30 points to 5,207.68.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 84.04 points to 19,699.52, the Plantation Index was 8.75 points easier at 7,178.38 and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.77 of-a-point to 180.20. The Energy Index bagged 4.62 points to 879.72. — Bernama