KUALA LUMPUR (April 19): Bursa Malaysia started the morning trading in positive territory, attributed to broad-based buying in response to a regional recovery, with investors seen focusing on counters with high cash reserves.

At 9.22am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.86 points to 1,549.62 from Thursday's close of 1,544.76. The benchmark index opened 1.54 points better at 1,546.30.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 253 to 242, while 315 counters were unchanged, 1,566 untraded, and 21 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 479.11 million units worth RM188.78 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice president Thong Pak Leng said although the market opened higher, the overall sentiment remained jittery and there was a bias that investors might eventually opt for stocks with high cash reserves.

“We expect the index to hover within the 1,540-1,550 range. Anyhow, we noticed that a correction has started amongst commodities namely crude palm oil, which dipped to below RM4,000 per tonne and Brent crude that eased to US$86 per barrel,” he told Bernama.

Public Investment Bank Bhd said in a note that investors were trying to balance the push-pull of a strong economy and the restrictive Federal Reserve policy.

“Bursa Malaysia continued its upbeat momentum to end higher for the second straight day on Thursday, due to an improvement in sentiment and a resurgence in bargain-hunting following the recent downturn,” it said.

Among heavyweight counters, Maybank added three sen to RM9.70, Public Bank improved two sen to RM4.16, CIMB was flat at RM6.59 while Tenaga Nasional gained four sen to RM11.64.

As for the actives, Ingenieur Gudang was flat at 14 sen while TWL was also flat at three sen. Awanbiru lost 12 sen to 20 sen while Pan Malaysia was up 1.5 sen to 21 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index improved 27.24 points to 11,644.21, but the FBM ACE Index shed 4.53 points to 4,942.99 and the FBM 70 Index trimmed 1.09 points to 16,183.57.

The FBMT 100 Index gained 26.07 points to 11,281.60 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 28.75 points to 11,817.08.

Sector-wise, the Energy Index rose 0.25 of-a-point to 952.25, the Financial Services Index notched up 38.79 points to 17,171.43 and the Plantation Index garnered 33.27 points to 7,387.72.

However, the Industrial Products and Services Index shaved 0.63 of-a-point to 185.08.