At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 4.25 points to 1,584.55 from Thursday's close of 1,580.30.
The benchmark index opened 1.29 points better at 1,581.59.
On the broader market, gainers led decliners 214 to 136, while 274 counters were unchanged, 1,674 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 188.77 million units worth RM75.60 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng noted that Wall Street closed higher as United States (US) Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell played down the likelihood of an interest-rate hike, bringing relief to investors.
The US central bank had also revealed its strategy to slow down the pace of its balance sheet drawdown starting on June 1, aiming to prevent any excessive strain on financial markets, giving Dow Jones a push to finish 0.85 per cent higher while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.51 per cent at closing, he noted.
On the domestic front, Thong said the FBM KLCI closed higher yesterday as investors seized the opportunity to bottom fish following the sell-off on Tuesday.
"We believed the outlook for local equities remains positive, thanks to the continuous inflow of foreign funds into the region. Hence, we anticipate the FBM KLCI to trend within the range of 1,580 to 1,590 for today," he told Bernama.
Meanwhile Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd said in a note that Bursa Malaysia's positive performance yesterday, to record its ninth gain out of 11 sessions, was buoyed by Microsoft's proposed RM10.5 billion investment in Malaysia, apart from the Fed factor .
The market also saw the return of foreign inflows for the fourth straight day, it said.
"We reckon the current uptrend remains intact unless there is a significant breakdown below the 1,548 and 1,557 supports," it added.
Among the heavyweight counters, Maybank added one sen to RM9.79, Public Bank gained three sen to RM4.13, CIMB rose four sen to RM6.68 while Tenaga Nasional and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM12.02 and RM6.33 respectively.
As for the actives, Epicon improved one sen to 48 sen, Pasukhas increased four sen to 18 sen, Sarawak Cable bagged 2.5 sen to 17.5 sen while Ingenieur Gudang and TWL Holdings were flat at 13 sen and three sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 29.62 points higher to 11,925.71, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 27.61 points to 11,552.44, the FBM 70 Index climbed 26.09 points to 16,640.28, the FBM ACE Index grew 8.21 points to 5,115.89 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 14.01 points to 12,127.69.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index rose 57.87 points to 17,301.13 and and the Energy Index improved 3.25 points to 967.19 while the Plantation Index slipped 17.27 points to 7,437.92 and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.02 of-a-point to 190.01.
-- BERNAMA
