KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI rode on the recovery in US tech stocks to open higher on Thursday morning, although investors remained cautious ahead of Bank Negara's decision on its benchmark lending rate later today.
Also, the local market is due to be shuttered for another three-day weekend, which could accelerate profit-taking pressure and put a cap on gains today.
At 9am, the FBM KLCI was up 1.4 points to 1,579.92, as investors attempted to end the week with some partial retracement of the previous week's sell-off.
Malacca Securities said it antcipates the local bourse to trade on a firmer note today given the broadly positive overnight performance in the US.
It added that solar-related companies should see healthy buying support given the recent rollout of LSS5+ packages.
In construction stocks, the research firm said traders may focus on Sunway Construction and gamuda as it anticpates the data centre boom will be sustained, as well as LSH Capital which it deems undervalued.
"On a more conservative play, traders may focus on sectors like Banks, REITs, and consumers such as AmBank, IGB REIT, and 99 Speed Mart, given the lower input cost environment, with the latter having just announced its expansion into China," it said in a note.
Early movers on Bursa Malaysia included Nestle, up 32 sen to RM93.92, PPB rising 32 sen to RM9.72 and Malayan Cement jumping 19 sen to RM5.89.
Arka climbed eight sen to 80 sen while Itmax gained five sen to RM4.40.
Of actives, MTouche was up 0.5 sen to 4.5 sen, Mestron was flat at 23 sen and Dnex gained one sen to 25.5 sen.
