KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia continued its upward momentum on Thursday morning, following Wall Street's overnight rally driven by improved consumer confidence.
At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 2.70 points to 1,616.79 from Wednesday's close of 1,614.09.
The index opened 2.05 points higher at 1,616.14.
On the broader market, gainers led losers 226 to 101, while 285 counters were unchanged.
Turnover was at 193.50 million units valued at RM91.02 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of research Kenny Yee Shen Pin said Wall Street continues to scale record highs with techstocks leading the charge.
He said at the same time, traders arealso waiting for the US latest employment data this Friday that may dictate the Federal Reserve stance on interest rates.
"Domestically, the FBM KLCI maintained itsuptrend, to end at almost the 1,615 level. "In the absence of any aggressive selling from foreign funds, we expect theindex to possibly hover within the 1,615-1,625 range today," he told Business Times.
He also expects that the 1,630 mark will be broken along the way to avert a prolonged consolidation phase.