KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended its rebound on Thursday on overnight news that China may be delaying plans to dominate the high-tech sector in a bid to ease trade tensions with the US.
Investors are betting on the postponement of the "Made in China 2025" plan helping the two major economies to strike a deal when the March 1 deadline is reached.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 10.94 points to 1,674.21. Turnover was 921.5 million shares valued at RM707.64mil. There were 335 gainers versus 320 decliners and 307 counters unchanged.
Banks lifted the benchmark index for a second straight session. Maybank added 15 sen to RM9.44, CIMB gained 12 sen to RM5.87 and Public Bank rose eight sen to RM24.98.
Telcos were also on the rise, led by Axiata advancing seven sen to RM3.83 and Maxis climbing eight sen to RM5.22 while Digi rose four sen to RM4.40.
On the downtrend, Tenaga Nasional slid six sen to RM13.44, Hartalega
dropped six sen to RM6.33 and Hap Seng declined five sen to RM9.70.
Meanwhile, My EG, which was the most actively traded counter yesterday, continued to see high turnover. The stock rebounded 7.5 sen to 91.5 sen after a selloff in the previous session that saw it lose 17%.
Bumi Armada was also one of the top active counters, gaining 0.5 sen to 18 sen.
Seeing rising momentum, F&N grew RM1.04 to RM33.36, Mani-Tech added 24 sen to RM4.39 and Genting Plantations put on 18 sen to RM9.63.
BAT slid 86 sen to RM36.22, Shangri-La declined 18 sen to RM5.62 and Tasek fell 15 sen to RM4.65.
In oil markets, the easing of trade tensions helped to buoy prices even as data showed a drawdown in US crude inventories. WTI crude rose 18 cents to US$51.33 a barrel while Brent crude advanced 29 cents to US$60.44 a barrel.
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