KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — Bursa Malaysia opened lower but regained its upward momentum thereafter on bargain hunting activities, following yesterday’s selloff.

At 9.12am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.29 points higher at 1,553.93 from yesterday’s close of 1,551.64, after opening 0.01 of-a-point weaker at 1,551.63.

The overall market breadth on Bursa Malaysia was positive with gainers outpacing losers 214 to 158, while 196 counters remained unchanged, 1,425 untraded and 21 others suspended.   

Turnover amounted to 300.27 million shares worth RM141.90 million. 

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In a note, Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said investors would continue to monitor for developments over the Novel Coronavirus outbreak that saw the number of victims jumping close to an alarming rate.

It said should the aforementioned virus outbreak not contained over the near term, further downside across global equities market could be expected.

“Although the key index is already retesting the four-month low, we think that bargain hunting activities may take precedence amid the oversold condition following approximately 2.8 per cent slump recorded over the past week.

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“A recovery is expected to be mild with gains limited towards the 1,575 for the time being. However, should the 1,550 support level fails to hold, further weakness may drag the local bourse towards the 1,535 support level,” it added.

On heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM8.48, Public Bank gained six sen to RM19.02, Tenaga lost six sen to RM12.68 and Petronas Chemicals was two sen lower at RM6.62.

Among actives were Avillion, which was half-a-sen higher at 16 sen, Careplus eased half-a-sen to 39 sen and Alam Maritim rose one sen to 16.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 8.26 points to 11,077.90, the FBM Emas Shariah Index fell 18.54 points to 11,777.40, the FBMT 100 Index gained 8.52 points to 10,874.81, the FBM 70 was 19.76 points weaker at 13,916.61, and the FBM Ace increased 29.47 points to 5,597.25.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 0.13 point to 148.11, the Financial Services Index was 46.05 points higher at 14,931.86 and the Plantation Index lost 32.95 points to 7,156.37. — Bernama