KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 24): Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher Friday on bargain hunting activities amid a cautious sentiment, tracking the regional market performance.

At 9.33am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) edged up 1.83 points to 1,455.12 from yesterday’s closing of 1,453.29.

The index opened 2.49 points better at 1,455.78.

Market breadth was negative, with decliners leading gainers 265 to 226, while 320 counters were unchanged, 1,591 untraded and 10 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 572.35 million units valued at RM317.79 million.

Rakuten Trade equity research vice president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street was closed for Thanksgiving Day, while key regional markets finished mostly higher Thursday, with strong gains in China and Hong Kong due to late buying.

"We remain vigilant despite the rebound in regional markets.

"Notwithstanding this, we believe the local market is undervalued, providing opportunities for investors to accumulate stocks at attractive levels," he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank added one sen to RM9.10, CIMB grew one sen to RM5.75 and Petronas Chemicals was also up one sen to RM7.17. Public Bank lost two sen to RM4.25 while Tenaga also lost two sen to RM10.

Of the actives, Hong Seng rose half-a-sen to three sen while Ho Wah Genting added two sen to 24.5 sen. Top Glove was flat at 88.5 sen while Leform was also flat at 28.5 sen. Careplus fell half-a-sen to 31.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 9.49 points higher at 10,782.60, the FBMT 100 Index rose 10.60 points to 10,444.78 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index shed 2.12 points to 10,962.53.

The FBM 70 Index added 3.54 points to 14,373.66 but the FBM ACE Index lost 25.26 points to 5,176.90.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index expanded 11.79 points to 16,395.03, the Energy Index lost 2.61 points to 843.06, the Plantation Index was 8.79 points higher at 6,956.26. The Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.04 of-a-point to 173.30.