KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia perked up after Wall Street's strong recovery as hopes of a permanent peace deal in the Middle East grew ahead of a second round of scheduled talks between the US and Iran.
Amid the growing optimism, analysts, however, continued to strike a cautious tone as the fate of the Strait of Hormuz remains up in the air.
"The Malaysian market is expected to remain headline-driven, balancing energy sector tailwinds against the prospect of a sharp oil price correction should talks produce a breakthrough before the ceasefire expires," said Apex Research in its morning note.
The FBM KLCI was up 6.82 points to 1,694.94 as at 9.25am, a modest increase in comparison to the surge of buying sentiment that had taken over Wall Street overnight.
Overnight, the major US indices erased losses made since the onset of the Iran war with the Nasdaq advancing 1.96%.
Asian markets followed suit as they opened on Wednesday, led higher by South Korea's Kospi rising 2.88% to 6,139 and Japan's Nikkei gaining 1.16% to 58,548. Australia's ASX200 was seen eking out a 0.19% gain to 8,987.
Brent crude futures slipped below US$95 a barrel, its lowest level in a week.
Bursa Malaysia's heavyweight banks rose, with Maybank gaining 14 sen to RM11.18, CIMB rising three sen to RM7.58, RHB adding three sen to RM8.13 and Hong Leong Bank jumping 32 sen to RM22.12.
PETRONAS Chemicals slumped 15 sen to RM5.75.
Making its ACE Market debut, 5E Resources opened at 28.5 sen, a 2.5 sen increase over its initial public offering price of 26 sen.
Other actively traded stocks included AirAsia X
, gaining four sen to RM1.23 and Zetrix AI rising one sen to 78 sen.
