Bursa Malaysia Extends Positive Momentum In Early Session
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia extended its positive momentum in the early session on Thursday, tracking the upbeat performance on Wall Street overnight amid improving consumer confidence.
At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 2.70 points to 1,616.79 from Wednesday’s close of 1,614.09.
The index opened 2.05 points higher at 1,616.14.
Market breadth was positive, with gainers leading losers 226 to 101 while 285 counters were unchanged, 1,844 untraded and 11 suspended.
Turnover amounted to 193.50 million units valued at RM91.02 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd said Wall Street continues to scale record highs with technology stocks leading the charge, while traders are also waiting for the latest US employment data this Friday, which may influence the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) stance on interest rates.
“Domestically, we expect the index to hover within the 1,615-1,625 range today, with the hope that the 1,630 mark will be broken along the way to avert a prolonged consolidation phase,” it said in a note today.
ActivTrades trader Anderson Alves said Asian equities will likely trade positively on Thursday, driven by optimism in the technology and communication sectors following gains on Wall Street.
He said this comes as US yields eased and the US dollar weakened, creating a favourable backdrop.
“Additionally, the energy sector could attract attention as participants monitor developments from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus meeting later today.
“The base case scenario for the meeting is a 3-month extension of the current production cut quota, with a 6-month extension viewed as a bullish outlier for oil prices,” he said.
While a deep production cut is not currently anticipated, any discussions hinting at this possibility, coupled with a 3- or 6-month extension, would highly support oil prices and energy-related stocks, Alves added.
Heavyweight Maybank and Public Bank were flat at RM10.18 and RM4.53 respectively while CIMB increased five sen to RM8.25 and Tenaga Nasional bagged six sen to RM13.70. IHH erased two sen to RM7.28.
Among the active stocks, newly listed Cropmate Bhd added one sen to 21 sen, MMS Venture inched up half-a-sen to 49.5 sen, Silver Ridge dropped 10 sen to 54 sen, while Solution Group and Mestron were flat at 17 sen and 30.5 sen respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index expanded 31.44 points to 12,346.07, the FBMT 100 Index climbed 31.12 points to 12,031.80 and the FBM 70 Index jumped 87.75 points up to 18,324.85.
The FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 32.19 points to 12,338.66 but the FBM ACE Index decreased 36.27 points to 5,228.98.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index grew 27.46 points to 19,161.18 while the Plantation Index strengthened 12.88 points to 7,759.94. The Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.23 of-a-point to 176.36 but the Energy Index added 1.05 points to 818.53.
-- BERNAMA