KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 20): Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street's upbeat overnight performance fuelled by recent remarks from the US Federal Reserve on interest rates.

At 9.07am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 1.30 points to 1,466.97 versus Tuesday's close of 1,465.67.

The FBM KLCI opened 0.76 of-a-point better at 1,466.43.

In the broader market, gainers surpassed losers 142 to 121, while 272 counters were unchanged, 1,782 untraded, and 23 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 164.89 million units worth RM73.54 million.

Rakuten Trade head of research Kenny Yee said although recent uptrends have outpaced fundamentals, traders remain adamant that “there are still legs for equities”.

Hence, he said the Dow Jones Industrial Average overnight rose 252 points while the Nasdaq added 98 points with the US 10-year yield easing slightly to 3.931%.

Back home, he said the 1,465 mark seems to be a tough resistance level, and if it is not broken decisively soon, he expects the index to retrace below the 1,460-level again.

"For today, we expect the index to hover within the 1,460-1,470 range with interest returning to banks and plantation stocks," he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank inched up one sen to RM4.35, CIMB increased three sen to RM5.99, Petronas Chemicals gained four sen to RM7.13, while Maybank lost one sen to RM8.97 and Tenaga Nasional shed one sen to RM9.99.

Of the actives, Jati Tinggi rose 4.5 sen to 31.5 sen, Dagang NeXchange was one sen higher at 40.5 sen, AT Systematization put on half-a-sen to one sen and Tanco edged up half-a-sen to 59 sen.

Top Glove slid half-a-sen to 93.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index went up 8.22 points to 10,872.78, the FBMT 100 Index was up 9.08 points to 10,539.60, the FBM 70 Index improved 11.43 points to 14,545.45, the FBM Emas Shariah Index recovered 1.89 points to 10,986.58, while the FBM ACE Index perked up 22.96 points to 5,206.09.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index strengthened 35.31 points to 16,541.01, the Plantation Index was 0.48 of-a-point higher to 7,005.08, the Energy Index advanced 0.68 of-a-point to 819.13, and the Industrial Products and Services Index gained 0.10 of-a-point to 171.74.