KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd
(Maybank) and Genting Malaysia underpinned the FBM KLCI’s slight gains tracking a higher overnight Wall Street.
At midday, the FBM KLCI gained 0.66 of-a-point to 1,774.41. The index opened 1.06 points higher at 1,774.81.
There were 367 gainers, 314 losers and 360 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia. Turnover was at 911.1 million shares valued at RM744.19mil.
Dealers said trading were likely to stay range bound as investors waited for gross domestic product (GDP) data due to be announced on Friday. Bank Negara is slated to announce the economic numbers tomorrow.
According to Bloomberg, the consensus estimate for the economic growth in the second quarter is 5.4%. Alliance DBS Research earlier this week had upgraded the second-quarter GDP growth to 5.5% from 5.2% previously.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Research sentiments on Bursa Malaysia should remain positive amid re-emergence of buying support recently.
“Technology related stocks are likely to continue outperform the market and the sub-index may revisit the recent peak of 38, while KLCI is gradually trending towards the range of 1,775-1780,” it added.
US markets advanced overnight as the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its July meeting. Similarly, European stocks climbed as geopolitical tension in North Korea eased and Europe’s second quarter GDP grew 2.2%.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.1% to close at 2,468.11 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 25.88 points, or 0.1%, to end at 22,024.87.
On Bursa Malaysia, consumers counters like Nestle surged 86 sen to RM84.98, Dutch Lady gained 18 sen to RM59.18 and Panasonic Manufacturing climbed 10 sen to RM37.10.
The decliners included Kuala Lumpur Kepong, Sam Engineering and SIG Gases.
Maybank was one the mover among the KLCI stocks, pushing the 30-stock index up by 0.8728 points. The bank rose 5 sen to RM9.74. Genting Malaysia added four sen to RM6.10 pushing the index up by 0.3923 while Petronas Chemicals rose one sen to RM7.17, nudging the index up by 0.1321.
Meanwhile, Reuters reporter that Southeast Asian stock markets edged up on Thursday after investors took heart from the minutes of a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting that showed policymakers wary about weak inflation, indicating that the Fed may slow the pace of rate increases.
The Hang Seng index ended up 0.9% at 27,409.07 points. The CSI300 index advanced 0.4% to 3,714.46 while the Shanghai Composite Index also gained 0.4% to 3,258.91 points.
Japan’s Nikkei ended the 0.1% lower at 19,713.62 and the South Korea KOSPI was up 0.5% at 2,359.17 points.
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