KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips opened on a firmer note on May 15, tracking the overnight gains on Wall Street, with plantations, BCHB and Tenaga among the gainers.

At 9.01am, the KL Composite Index was up 5.43 points to 1,017.42. Turnover was 34.94 million shares valued at RM15.5 million.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said in its outlook report that ivestors will want to reverse the downward momentum on Bursa Malaysia after the KLCI settling at its intra-day low of 1,011.99 yesterday.

“To recoup much of the previous day’s losses, the benchmark index will probably attempt to overcome its support-turned-resistance line of 1,020 ahead. Still, buying activity may not sustain for the longer time without the emergence of fresh catalysts,” it added.

“Essentially, investors have reached a crossroads now following the multi-week rally that could have run ahead of the improving fundamentals, as they take a shorter-term view from a bottoms-up perspective while waiting for the next market trigger,” it said.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said amid the relatively slow news flows, one stock that may attract some trading interest was BCHB after the banking groupjust released a set of buoyant January-March quarterly results that beat street expectations..

Among plantations-related stocks PPB and KLK rose 20 sen each in very thin trade to RM11.30 and RM11.40, Kulim added 10 sen to RM6.10 while Sime rose five sen to RM6.60.

Tenaga advanced 15 sen to RM7.40., BCHB 10 sen to RM8.95, AMMB  and Genting six sen higher to RM3.20 and RM4.78.