Bursa rides on Wall Street rally, Tenaga powers

KUALA LUMPUR:  Bursa Malaysia advanced early Thursday as investor sentiment was boosted by the sharp overnight close on Wall Street, with power giant Tenaga Nasional powering the gains.

At 9.28am, the FBM KLCI was  up 9.6 points or 0.56% to RM1,724.48. Turnover was 385.32 million shares valued at RM201.49mil. There were 359 gainers, 97 losers and 193 counters unchanged.

Stocks in Asia jumped following a strong US session as investors moved past the hurdle of uncertainty presented by America’s midterm elections and saw benefits in Washington’s gridlock, Bloomberg reported.

Tenaga rose 16 sen to RM14.98 while Public Bank added 12 sen to RM24.72.

Petronas Dagangan gained 52 sen to RM28.26 and Petronas Chemical 15 sen to RM9.85.

As for tech and semicon counters, KESM was up 58 sen to RM11.70, Pentamaster 14 sen to RM3.44 and Vitrox 12 sen to RM7.94.

BAT was up 22 sen to RM36.44 but F&N fell 58 sen to RM34.38 and Henieken 20 sen to RM20.

United Plantations gained 68 sen to RM27.18 while PPB Group, which hit its all-time high on Wednesday, fell 20 sen to RM17.02.

Reuters reported oil prices were stable, supported by rumblings from within OPEC that production curbs may become necessary again to prevent a return of global oversupply.

But soaring U.S. crude output, which hit a record 11.6 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, kept a lid on prices.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at US$61.75 per barrel at 0120 GMT, up eight cents from their last settlement.

Front-month Brent crude oil futures were up six cents at US$72.13 a barrel.