KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic market took pause in early morning trade as investors took stock of the previous day's rally and digested the news of the appointment of Malaysia's 10th Prime Minister.
Following the conclusion to the political impasse, sentiment on the market is expected to remain bullish while foreign investors have snapped a six-day selling streak to turn net buyers in the previous session.
At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was up 0.96 points to 1,502.84, indicating that investors may be in search of fresh direction following the strong rally.
With US markets being closed on Thursday due to its Thanksgiving Holiday, there was also an absence of leads from Wall Street, which had previously rallied on the back of indications the Federal Reserve may dial back the pace of interest rate hikes.
The market breadth on Bursa Malaysia however remained bullish with 243 gainers compared with 127 decliners.
Trading volume was 475.97 million shares valued at RM134.68mil.
Malacca Securities Research expects investors to capitalise on more buying opportunities in the days ahead as the new government begins enacting new policies and initiatives.
"After this GE15 event, we expect a broad-based buying interest into GLCs, while traders could focus into the construction and building material segments ahead of the re-tabling of Budget 2023.
"Besides, the technology sector may continue to outperform the market with the momentum picking up," it said in a report.
Bank stocks were seen continuing their upward momentum. Maybank rose six sen to RM8.82, Public Bank gained seven sen to RM4.59, Hong Leong Bank added 12 sen to RM20.82, CIMB gained two sen to RM5.89 and RHB put on two sen to RM5.69.
Telcos however subsided with Axiata sliding seven sen to RM3.11, Digi losing four sen to RM3.96 and Maxis shedding 10 sen to RM4.01.
Tenaga Nasional dropped eight sen to RM8.83 while PETRONAS Chemicals gained four sen to RM9.10 and Press Metal
rose four sen to RM4.92.
Following yesterday's frenzied buying, Advance Synergy dropped to second place on the actives list and shed 1.5 sne to 24.5 sen.
ACE Market debutant waas seen surging 24 sen or 60% to 64 sen at the open, before retracing to 54.5 sen on the back of heavy trading volume.
