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KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened 0.43% higher today, driven by mild buying interest, a dealer said.
At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 6.40 points to 1,473.66 from yesterday’s closing of 1,467.26.
The benchmark index opened 3.11 points better at 1,470.37.
On the broader market, gainers surpassed losers 237 to 104, while 233 counters were unchanged, 1,758 untraded and seven others suspended.
Turnover stood at 236.73 million units worth RM90.93 million.
Rakuten Trade vice-president of Equity Research, Thong Pak Leng said investors are also monitoring Wall Street which closed marginally higher overnight, as expectations regarding the US Federal Reserve chair’s speech in Jackson Hole this Friday continue to cause waves of uncertainties.
“The market’s speculation about the speech tomorrow has also boosted the sentiment,” he said.
Thong noted that although the FBM KLCI index had declined by 50 points over the past five days, bargain hunting was nowhere to be seen as sentiments had turned cautious.
“Therefore, we reckon the index would trend within the 1,460 to 1,475 range today and expect some interest in energy stocks, with the Brent crude now hovering at above US$101 per barrel.
“We also expect to see some rebound in plantation stocks as yesterday’s selling could have been a bit overdone as the crude palm oil ended higher at above RM4,300 per tonne,” he said.
Meanwhile, heavyweights Maybank gained four sen to RM8.85, Public Bank and Press Metal added one sen each to RM4.63 and RM4.66, respectively, while Petronas Chemicals was down by three sen to RM8.47.
Of the actives, Hibiscus Petroleum gained three sen to 99 sen and TWL Holdings’ shares were flat at five sen, while Serba Dinamik and its warrant were also flat at 4.5 sen and 1.5 sen, respectively.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 47.58 points to 10,497.93, the FBMT 100 Index gained 45.88 points to 10,236.21, the FBM 70 added 62.51 points to 12,663.51 and the FBM ACE went up 21.36 points to 4,896.33, while the FBM Emas Shariah Index jumped 55.05 points to 10,558.87.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index advanced 46.60 points to 16,597.55 and the Energy Index increased 10.75 points to 717.94, while the Plantation Index was 29.96 points better at 6,890.79 and the Industrial Products and Services Index added 0.24 of-a-point to 180.13.
Meanwhile, the ringgit continued to remain higher against the US dollar this morning, following the release of the US Pending Home Sales data which remained in the negative territory despite a better-than-expected reading, a dealer said.
At 9.22am, the local currency was pegged at 4.4830/4860 against the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.4840/4870.
ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the readings for the US Pending Home Sales indicator have remained below zero since November 2021, signalling a slowdown in the US real estate sector.
“From the technical viewpoint, this could be a signal to a possible retracement as the US dollar/ringgit is in an all-time high region. A break below 4.4730 could make room for a drop to 4.4570 first and then 4.4050,” he said in a note today.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies.
The local note depreciated against the euro to 4.4763/4793 from 4.4593/4623 at yesterday’s close, slipped against the Singapore dollar to 3.2212/2239 from 3.2169/2195 yesterday and eased against the British pound to 5.2958/2993 from 5.2916/2951 previously.
However, it had appreciated vis-à-vis the Japanese yen to 3.2761/2785 from 3.2847/2872 yesterday. – Bernama, August 25, 2022