KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed higher today, buoyed by increased risk appetite after Bank Negara kept the overnight policy rate (OPR) unchanged at 3%, amid Donald Trump's claimed victory in the U.S. presidential election, which strengthened the US dollar.
The benchmark FBM KLCI rose 13.47 points, or 0.83%, to 1,634.17, its intraday high, boosted by gains in banking and utilities stocks.
In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 849 to 428, with 3.4 billion shares worth RM2.92bil changing hands.
Among the gainers on Bursa Malaysia, Malaysian Pacific Industries
jumped 80 sen to RM26.36, United Plantations rose 68 sen to RM28, Frontken added 44 sen to RM4.18 and Hong Leong Financial Group gained 40 sen to RM18.80.
Conversely, BLD Plantation slid 32 sen to RM10.68, F&N fell 24 sen to RM30.74, Sarawak Oil Palms lost 12 sen to RM3.43 and Maxis gave up 02 sen to RM3.61.
Newly listed 3REN surged 41.07%, or 11.5 sen, to 39.5 sen, with 181.04 million shares traded.
Earlier, Bank Negara announced that it had kept the OPR unchanged at 3%, as widely expected, noting that this level supports Malaysia's economy and aligns with its assessment of inflation and growth prospects.
“At the current OPR level, the monetary policy stance remains supportive of the economy and is consistent with the current assessment of inflation and growth prospects. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) remains vigilant to ongoing developments to inform the assessment on the domestic inflation and growth trajectories going into 2025,” Bank Negara said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the ringgit fell 1.13% against the greenback, reaching 4.4028, and declined 0.23% against the Singapore dollar, standing at 3.3064 on the forex market.
Reuters reported that U.S. stock futures hit record highs, the dollar surged and Treasury yields jumped, while bitcoin broke US$75,000 for the first time - all moves flagged by investors as likely should Trump win over Democrat Kamala Harris.
Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 2.61%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed down 2.23% and South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.52%. China’s CSI300 Index lost 0.5% and Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.09%.
