KUALA LUMPUR: The rebound on Bursa Malaysia is expected to continue on Tuesday as fears over rising tensions in the Middle East subside and market sentiment improves.
Having undergone four days of recovery, the benchmark FBM KLCI started the session cautiously with a marginal 0.22-point increase to 1,559.81.
Among the leading blue chips, Maybank rose four sen to RM9.78 while CelcomDigi gained two sen to RM4.13 and Genting added two sen to RM4.55.
Nestle climbed 50 sen to RM125.20 while QL Resources added three sen to RM6.40.
Top actives included Sapura Energy
up flat at 4.5 sen, Iconic down one sen to 9.5 sen and Ingenieur gaining 0.5 sen to 14.5 sen.
Apex Securities Research said the FBM KLCI is expected to track gains on Wall Street on improved market sentiment ahead of corporate results to be released over the coming weeks.
"The lower liners are also faring better as investors nibble on beaten-down stocks with foreign funds turning net buyers for the first time in 10 trading sessions," it said in its market outlook.
Foreign funds were seen returning to the domestic market on Monday as they picked up RM115mil net of local equities in tandem with a 12.02-point or 0.78% gain in the FBM KLCI.
Malacca Securities Research said the positive momentum could persist following the KL20 summit, where the government pledged more investment into the technology sector.
"With the rebound in Nasdaq overnight, coupled with the KL20 summit where Malaysia aims to become the chip powerhouse in the SEA region, traders may shift their focus back in the Technology sector," said the research firm in a report.
