KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian stock market rose on Wednesday as investors closely watched the development of the US presidential election.
In Malaysia, Bank Negara will announce the decision of its monetary policy committee meeting in the afternoon, with economists predicting the central bank will keep the status quo on the overnight policy rate.
At the start of trading, the benchmark FBM KLCI was up 3.69 points to 1,624.41, extending its gains for a fourth straight day as the market retraced its loss from the previous week.
Malacca Securities Research said the positive result on Wall Street overnight could spill over to the local bourse, especially within the technology sector in the near term.
"Meanwhile, we favour the O&G sector given the rebound in crude oil prices, and we maintain a positive view on glove stocks as the ringgit continues to trend around RM 4.34/USD.
"Looking ahead to earnings, we expect a potential spike in Construction earnings driven by booming data center investments," it added in its report.
Among individual stocks, United Plantations continued to soar, rising 38 sen to RM27.70.
Gamuda jumped eight sne ot RM8.77 and BAT rose seven sen to RM8.12.
Bank heavyweight were also improved with Maybank gaining two sen to RM10.56, CIMB adding three sen to RM8.15 and Public Bank adding two sen to RM4.45.
Automation solutions and engineering services provider 3REN, which made its debut on the ACE Market, surged eight sen to 36 sen with 57.7 million shares changing hands, topping the active stocks on Bursa Malaysia.
In other leading actives, Aizo gained 0.5 sen to 16 sen and Pegasus Heights was flat at one sen.
