KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia stayed flattish on the first day of post-Christmas trading as the closure of major global bourses on Friday gave little trading direction for investors.

       However, there remained a bullish bias on the market given the recent uptick in global equities as fears over Omicron variant of the Covid virus subsided.

       At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was up 0.38 points to 1,516.83.

       "We expect the buying interest to continue at least for the week given the Omicron fear has faded.

       "We think traders should focus on the recovery theme stocks as well as companies with solid earnings visibility such as the technology sector," said Malacca Securities Research in a report.

       The research house added that recovery theme counters expected to see investor interest include the aviation, gaming and tourism industries.

       On Bursa Malaysia, stocks seeing early buying interest include Genetec up 52 sen to RM37.18, Vitrox rising 24 sen to RM20.22, MGRC climbing six sen to RM1.12 and SCGM adding four sen to RM2.47.

       Blue chips on the benchmark index were mixed with bank counter being mostly unchanged while Maybank slid three sen to RM8.22. Hong Leong Bank was up 10 sen to RM18.60.

       Petronas Gas however fell 32 sen to RM16.98 while Press Metal gained three sen to RM5.56 and Sime Darby Plantation added two sen to RM3.92.

       Among top actives, ATAM IMS fell one sen to 70 sen, Eduspec fell 0.5 sen to 1.5 sen and KAB was unchanged at 26 sen.