KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — Bursa Malaysia kicked off on a positive note on Friday, mirroring Wall Street’s better performance overnight amidst the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and supported by the belief that the Federal Reserve may not be too aggressive on its tapering, a dealer said. 

At 9.05am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 7.33 points to 1,581.22  compared with 1,573.89 at Thursday’s close.

The market bellwether opened 5.18 points firmer at 1,579.07.

On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 313 to 134, while 215 counters were unchanged, 1,623 untraded and 67 others suspended.

Turnover stood at 227.35 million units valued at RM160.38 million

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street reversed earlier steep losses as bargain-hunting activities boosted major indices, with Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI Average) closing 92 points higher following an almost 1,000-point swing, while the Nasdaq was up by 436 points.

As for the local bourse, he said the FBM KLCI is likely to see bargain hunting activities soon. 

“Therefore, we expect the index to trend within the 1,570-1,585 range today,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Thong noted that crude palm oil ended at a fresh record high at close to RM7,100 per tonne and the Brent crude surged to almost US$100 per barrel yesterday, in response to the conflict in Ukraine.

As for the Bursa heavyweights, Maybank rose 11 sen to RM8.81, Public Bank added three sen to RM4.31, Petronas Chemicals inched up nine sen to RM9.29, IHH Healthcare bagged 12 sen to RM6.52 and CIMB increased six sen to RM5.54. 

Of the actives, DNex improved three sen to RM1.17, Ta Win firmed half-a-sen to 15 sen and DGB Asia unchanged at two sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index expanded 63.23 points to 11,282.36, the FBMT 100 Index stronger 60.63 points to 10,955.94, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index recovered 44.79 points to 11,989.91.

The FBM 70 ticked up 117.72 points to 13,457.51 and the FBM ACE strengthen by 70.04 points to 5,938.96.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index climbed 2.18 points to 208.72, the Financial Services Index jumped 119.41 points to 16,279.18, while the Plantation Index improved 7.35 points to 8,029.43. — Bernama