KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher on Monday as geopolitical turmoil and inflation fears dampen risk sentiment, but optimism over the tech sector continues to grow.
The market barometer opened 4.14 points higher at 1,724.47, suggesting there remained some buying interest in local heavyweights.
Apex Securities said the FBM KLCI is expected to trade mixed in line wiht regional and global peers. "Overall, we expect sentiment to remain cautious, with near-term trading likely driven by geopolitical developments, crude oil price movements, and foreign fund flows," said the research firm in its morning note.
Over the near term, it said technology will be supported by improving risk appetite, regional tech strength and sustained digitalisation trends, with momentum likely to remain intact given their recent outperformance.
Sector rotation, however, will persist with investors favouring large-cap, earnings-supported and defensive names, while remaining selective amid external volatility and evolving geopolitical developments.
In its technical reading, Apex Securities said the FBM KLCI has established a firm support base above 1,700.
"While short-term pullbacks may emerge on profit-taking, the overall uptrend remains intact. However, the index could face some resistance near its downtrend line, as regional and local market closures for Labour Day are likely to result in lighter trading volumes this week.
In early morning trade, Nestle rose RM1.80 to RM101.10, Press Metal
jumped 30 sen to RM8.72 and Telekom Malaysia climbed 31 sen to RM7.41.
Most active shares were Velesto unchanged at 32 sen, Luster up 1.5 sen to 5.5 sen and Berjaya Corp rising two sen to 28 sen.
