An upbeat performance on Wall Street last Friday also added to the impetus, analysts said.
At 5pm, the barometer index rose 11.1 points or 0.78% to 1,429.54 from last Friday’s close of 1,418.44.
The index, which opened 2.45 points higher at 1,420.89, hit a low of 1,416.71 during the mid-morning session before gaining momentum from the start of the afternoon session towards the end of trading.
On the broader market, gainers outpaced losers 517 to 334, while 382 counters were unchanged, 1,054 not traded, and 20 others suspended.
Total turnover was higher at 2.4 billion units worth RM1.28 billion compared with 2.05 billion units valued at RM1.06 billion last Friday.
The local market succumbed to selling pressure last week due to a lack of buying catalyst amid lacklustre trading, which prompted bargain hunters to emerge today as the market remained in an oversold position.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said key regional indices closed broadly higher, tracking Wall Street’s rebound on Friday as fairly encouraging economic data from the US and upbeat earnings updates from some top companies helped to lift sentiment.
“As for the local bourse, we are cautiously optimistic given the improvement in regional market sentiment. Nonetheless, investors should stay alert due to the increasing market volatility,” he told Bernama.
Thong also expects some bargain-hunting activities to continue considering the low valuations of the local market compared with regional peers.
He foresees the benchmark index trading within the 1,420 to 1,450 range for the week with immediate support at 1,400 and resistance at 1,460.
Among the heavyweights, Maybank was a sen lower at RM8.58, CIMB Group added four sen to RM5.09, Press Metal Aluminium and Petronas Gas gained 18 sen each to RM4.15 and RM16.60 respectively, while Tenaga Nasional lost four sen to RM7.95, and Hong Leong Bank fell by 10 sen to RM20.20.
Of the active counters, MMAG Holdings and Sapura Energy added half-a-sen each to 5.5 sen and 4.5 sen respectively, Top Glove Corporation climbed 4.5 sen to RM1.04, while newly-listed Ecoscience International slid four sen to 26 sen, and Borneo Oil was flat at 2.5 sen.