Bursa jumps in early trade as global momentum picks up

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia jumped in the early morning session as it seemed the global rally had picked up steam overnight.

Wall Street kept its bullish momentum with the Dow Jones and S&P500 hitting new records since January. Japan's Nikkei is up 0.65% in Friday early morning trade.

China had announced yesterday that it would reduce the aveage tariff rate on imports from most of its trading partners as soon as October, as part of a pledge to open its economy. 

The move helped propel financial markets that were already propped up on expectations that stimulus measures will help to offset the impact of the ongoing tariffs.

At 9.07am, the FBM KLCI rose 8.23 points to 1,811.83. Total volume was 76.93 million shares valued at RM53.77mil. There were 200 gainers versus 57 decliners and 146 counters unchanged.

Stocks that saw high investor interest included Scomi, which rose one sen to 7.5 sen, DNex, which gained 0.5 sen to 38.5 sen and Sapura Energy, which added 0.5 sen to 44.5 sen.

Nova MSC also saw active trade, adding 0.5 sen to 17 sen on the back of news that it had bagged a RM4.65mil contract in Singapore.

Among heavyweights, some early gainers include Tenaga Nasional rising 10 sen to RM15.86, Genting Malaysia adding nine sen to RM4.98 and Public Bank climbing eight sen to RM25.10.

IHH was on the slide, losing three sen to RM5.13.

Oil prices were little changed on Friday after falling in the previous session as US President Donald Trump urged OPEC to lower crude prices at its meeting in Algeria this weekend.

Brent crude for November delivery was up four cents at US$78.74 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery fell five cents to US$70.27 a barrel.