Bursa joins world markets in bullish turn

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia picked up in early Friday as investor sentiment turned bullish over recent news that the US and China were resuming bilateral talks to resolve the tariff war.

The bulls were sighted in global markets on Friday following Asian markets' positive performance in the previous session while Wall Street's three major indices tracked higher overnight.

Australia's ASX200 rose 0.5% in early trade while Japan's Nikkei climbed 0.75%.

At 9.06am, the FBM KLCI was up 0.61 points to 1,793.21. Trading volume was 142.2 million shares valued at RM65.18mil. There were 144 gainers versus 61 decliners and 143 counters unchanged. 

Among actively traded stocks, My EG grew four sen to RM1.61 while Eden jumped 1.5 sen to 24 sen and Reach Energy gained 0.5 sen to 37.5 sen.

Sapura Energy saw heavy investor interest but was unchanged at 44.5 sen.

Meanwhile, Serba Dinamik climbed six sen to RM3.83, QL rose six sen to RM6.08 an RHB Bank lifted five sen to RM5.42.

On the declining end, KL Kepong lost 40 sen to RM24.36, Atlan fell 18 sen to RM4.30 and Tenaga dropped 10 sen to RM15.70.

Oil prices were on the rise on tighter supply and optimism that business disruptions from the trade dispute may be resolved with the coming US-China negotiations. 

WTI crude gained 31 cents to US$68.90 a barrel while Brent crude rose US$78.44 a barrel.