KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — Bursa Malaysia reversed yesterday’s losses to close in the positive territory in line with the strong performance on regional peers on hopes the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will be less aggressive on the interest rates hike.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ticked up 5.69 points to 1,451.61 from yesterday’s close of 1,445.92.

The key index, which opened 5.06 points higher at 1,450.98, moved between 1,442.89 and 1,451.92 throughout the day.

The broader market was also positive with gainers beating gainers 487 to 340, while 442 counters were unchanged, 1,049 untraded, and 13 others suspended.

Turnover was marginally lower at 2.49 billion units valued at RM1.78 billion versus 2.98 billion units valued at RM1.56 billion yesterday.

SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said it was a relatively quiet trading session today as local investors pinned their hopes the Fed will be less hawkish in its interest rates decision tonight with forward guidance after the rate hike.

A softer Fed stance would be very positive for Malaysian stocks and the currency.

"There is some mild optimism that China may open borders sooner than expected but we are still waiting for official confirmation.

"So the market is really on a holding pattern ahead of tonight’s FOMC (outcome) where a 75 basis points (bps) hike is expected but the question now is what will the Fed do in December and beyond,” he told Bernama.

Asian shares wobbled in cautious trading today as investors braced for the Fed’s policy outcome with many looking for any signs of a slowdown in future rate hikes.

Back home, analysts said local investors were also awaiting Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Monetary Policy Committee meeting today and tomorrow, wherein the markets anticipated that the central bank may look to hike the overnight policy rate by 25 bps.

On the local bourse, heavyweights Maybank and Tenaga Nasional were flat at RM8.54 and RM8.40, respectively, Public Bank rose 4.0 sen to RM4.45, Petronas Chemicals added 2.0 sen to RM8.65, and CIMB gained 1.0 sen to RM5.49.

Among the actives, KNM increased half-a-sen to 4.5 sen, Solution Group went up 2.0 sen to 30 sen, both Widad and Advance Synergy were flat at 40.5 sen and 7.0 sen, respectively, while Hibiscus fell 1.0 sen to 98.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 30.31 points higher at 10,297.44, the FBMT 100 increased 28.72 points to 10,030.85, the FBM Emas Shariah advanced 31.97 points to 10,367.67, the FBM ACE garnered 75.82 points to 4,953.84, and the FBM 70 erased 7.73 points to 12,200.85.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 0.15 of-a-point to 174.82, the Plantation Index expanded 43.76 points to 6,836.69, the Financial Services Index perked up 13.80 points to 16,326.10 while the Energy Index was 14.83 points higher at 710.33.

The Main Market volume dwindled to 1.66 billion shares worth RM1.52 billion from 2.03 billion shares worth RM1.30 billion yesterday.

Warrants turnover declined to 253.71 million units valued at RM48.42 million from 419.53 million units valued at RM81.75 million yesterday.

The ACE Market volume climbed to 573.93 million shares worth RM212.18 million from 526.71 million shares worth RM189.21 million previously.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 303.24 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (388.25 million), construction (53.43 million), technology (122.69 million), SPAC (nil), financial services (68.79 million), property (216.64 million), plantation (47.79 million), REITs (5.02 million), closed/fund (28,500), energy (247.33 million), healthcare (122.47 million), telecommunications and media (15.87 million), transportation and logistics (62.25 million), and utilities (8.65 million). — Bernama