KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia advanced early Tuesday, trekking the key Asian markets after the strong overnight close on Wall Street but tech stocks could lose ground after Samsung Electronics’ profit warning.
At 9.24am, the FBM KLCI was up 2.93 points or 0.17% to 1,682.10. Turnover was 358.86 million shares valued at RM155.94mil. There were 205 gainers, 139 losers and 228 counters unchanged.
Asian shares rose for the third straight session as investors bet that Washington and Beijing are inching towards a trade deal and that US Federal Reserve would halt its tightening if economic growth slows further, Reuters reported.
Japan's Nikkei rose 1% while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked up 0.1%.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.7% following a 3.4% surge on Friday, with Amazon.com Inc and Netflix leading the rally.
Meanwhile, South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd estimated a 29% drop in quarterly operating profit, its first decline in two years, as it flagged tough memory chip and mobile phone markets in a rare commentary, Reuters reported. It estimated profit at US$9.67bil for October-December last year.
Gagasan Nadi Cergas, which made its debut on the ACE Market, was up just one sen to 31 sen with 60.66 million shares done. It rose to a high of 40 sen earlier.
BIMB gained eight sen to RM3.60 and Bursa seven sen to RM7.17 in thin trade.
MPI rose 30 sen to RM10.14, KESM 25 sen to RM8.50, Pentamaster 12 sen to RM2.76 and Dufu 11 sen to RM1.78.
Petronas Gas extended its decline, down 30 sen to RM17.70.
Export-driven glove makers fell as the ringgit gained strength against the US dollar.
Top Glove fell 18 sen to RM5.12, Kossan nine sen to RM4.16 while Supermax and Hartalega
lost four sen each to RM1.69 and RM5.71.
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