KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia ended higher after a long holiday weekend on persistent buying activities across the board.
The sentiment remained positive as the government was set to open up almost all economic activities starting tomorrow, further easing of restrictions as part of its soft landing strategy, a dealer said.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 18.83 points to end the day at 1,575.16 from 1,556.33 at last Friday's close.
The index opened 16.47 points higher at 1,572.80 and hovered between 1,567.97 and 1,590.83 throughout the trading session.
The overall market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing decliners 779 to 328, while 403 counters were unchanged, 391 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Total volume increased to 9.10 billion shares worth RM6.21 billion from 8.67 billion shares worth RM6.19 billion last Friday.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the local market was also taking a cue from the higher overnight performance of Wall Street as hopes of an economic recovery soared following the easing in COVID-19 lockdowns.
The US labour market also surprised on the upside when non-farm payrolls increased by 2.5 million in May, reversing some of the job losses in April, he said.
Mohd Afzanizam said the positive market sentiment was further brought on by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) + meeting during the weekend as members reiterated commitment to stabilise the crude oil prices and to strictly adhere to the production cut pact.
He said the local bourse was also traded steady during the whole session today as the measures announced under the National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA) continued to provide impetus to the market.
"PENJANA would benefit key sectors such as property and automotive. So it's a combination of good data and the 'feel good' factor from policy responses.
"However, it remains to be seen whether the uptrend can be sustained. Technical indicators seem to suggest that market correction is quite possible given key indicators are in the overbought region.
"Current resistance is now located at 1,580 points while support level at 1,552 points," he added.
Regionally, Japan's Nikkei eased 0.38 per cent to 23,091.03, Singapore's Straits Times fell 0.33 per cent to 2,787.68 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index expanded 1.13 per cent to 25,057.22 .
Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose 12 sen to RM8.20, Public Bank added six sen to RM17.38, Petronas Chemicals advanced 19 sen to RM6.89 and IHH Healthcare gained eight sen to RM5.63.
Tenaga, however, shed six sen to RM11.90.
As for the most active stocks, AirAsia X edged up two sen to 12.5 sen, AirAsia Group climbed 18.5 sen to RM1.05, Powerwell rose 6.5 sen to 38 sen and ACO Group surged 24 sen 58.5 sen, but Eduspec eased half a sen to two sen.