KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI rose in the early minutes of trading as it caught on to the wave of positivity surrounding the US-China trade talks that ended last Friday.
While observers note that few concrete resolutions have been made at the negotiations thus far, the two nations have pledged to continue their discussions this week in Washington, which indicates their commitment towards breaking the impasse.
Early opening Asia-Pacific markets were bullish in Monday morning trade with Japan's Nikkei rising 1.5%, Australia's ASX200 climbing 0.4% and South Korea's Kospi gaining 0.7%.
At 9.15am, the benchmark KLCI was up 5.91 points to 1,694.74. Trading volume was 299.23 million shares valued at RM105.85mil. There were 262 advancers versus 90 decliners and 190 counters unchanged.
In its technical outlook, Kenanga research said the index remains little changed given investors opting for the sidelines last week. The FBM KLCI ended last Friday with a week-on-week gain of 0.14%.
"Overall, we maintain our neutral outlook as the index remains above the 20- and 50-day SMAs but other momentum indicators remain lacklustre.
"A positive outcome from the trade talks could see the index trending higher to its resistances at 1,730 (R1) and 1,800 (R2)," said Kenanga.
Top actively traded counters on Bursa Malaysia were Borneo Oil
trading unchanged at 4.5 sen, Sapura Energy rising 0.5 sen to 31 sen and Bumi Armada gaining 0.5 sen to 24 sen.
Stocks seeing positive price action include Carlsberg, which put in a set of strong results on Friday. The beer manufacturer gained RM1.12 to RM23.04. Rival Heineken also rose 70 sen to RM22.40.
Meanwhile, KLCI-linked Hong Leong Bank led the index higher with a 14 sen climb to RM21.12. Fellow banking heavyweight Public Bank rose eight sen to RM25 while telco Digi advanced seven sen to RM4.68.
Some counters on the back foot included United Plantation sliding 28 sen to RM25.80, Riverview skidding 24 sen to RM2.86. and Dutch Lady losing 10 sen to RM62.60
In commodities markets, oil prices extended their advance on the Opec-led supply cuts even as US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela added to the lift.
US crude rose to its highest so far this year at US$56 a barrel while Brent crude similarly reached a 2019 peak of US$66.61 a barrel.
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