KUALA LUMPUR: Trading on Bursa Malaysia is expected to remain cautious ahead of the weekend release of US employment data that could offer more insight into the country's economic outlook and potential interest rate cuts.
At 9am, the benchmark FBM KLCI rose 0.87 points to 1,670.44 with financial stocks bouncing back after a sharp profit-taking in the previous session.
Maybank rose eight sen to RM10.72, CIMB gained two sen to RM8.80 and Hong Leong Bank added 14 sen to RM22.78.
Other early gainers included Kuala Lumpur Kepong rising 10 sen to RM19.94, 99 Speed Mart adding four sen to RM3.92 and PETRONAS Gas climbing 16 sen to RM18.36.
Among the Bursa Malaysia lower liners, there was active trading in MMAG unchanged at seven sen, Tanco flat at RM1.23 and TWL flat at 2.5 sen.
According to Rakuten Trade, trading is still very much centred on blue chips as retailers remained sidelined.
"For today, we expect the index to hover within the
1,665-1,675 range," it said in a note.
Overnight, Wall Street ended with a mixed performance as investors rotated out of tech shares into blue-chip defence and energy stocks as the US President floated a 50% defence budget hike.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.01% to end the session at 6,921.45 points. The Nasdaq declined 0.44% to 23,480.02 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.55% to 49,266.11 points.
