KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — Bursa Malaysia stayed positive at mid-morning, supported by buying interest in most heavyweight and financial services-linked counters, and in line with regional peers, dealers said.
At 11am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) improved 7.73 points to 1,691.26 from last Friday’s close of 1,683.53.
The index opened 15.44 points better at 1,698.97.
Market breadth was positive with gainers outpacing losers 318 to 244, while 290 counters were unchanged, 1,002 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Turnover was at 627.73 million shares worth RM439.05 million.
OANDA senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said the US-China trade talks had made “substantial progress”, according to US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer.
“No deal as yet, but President Donald Trump will travel to China to meet President Xi Jinping in February. For the markets, which are clearly in “risk-on” mood, it was a case of no news is good news.
“The stocks markets, emerging markets and bonds continue to bask in the warm Federal Reserve afterglow, as do precious metals on a lower US dollar,” he said.
Among heavyweights, Maybank advanced five sen to RM9.59, Public Bank was up four sen to RM24.82, Tenaga rose 22 sen to RM13.12, Petronas Chemicals inched up one sen to RM8.46 and CIMB increased three sen to RM5.65.
Of the most actives, Tatt Giap Group added one sen to 10 sen, Sapura Energy and Bumi Armada were flat at 26.5 sen and 20 sen respectively and Key Asic eased half-a-sen to 10 sen.
The FBM Emas Index was 52.67 points firmer at 11,713.29, the FBMT 100 Index gained 54.13 points to 11,599.34 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 49.59 points to 11,602.2.
The FBM Ace Index advanced 68.03 points to 4,470.13 and the FBM 70 gained 69.43 points to 13,886.64.
Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index improved 84.67 points to 17,599.64, the Plantation Index increased 1.26 points to 7,281.5, and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.28 of-a-point better at 161.39. — Bernama
