KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI ended the early session 0.9% higher as global equities rallied after US President Donald Trump set a timeline for an end to the Middle East conflict.
This comes as Trump said the US would leave Iran in two to three weeks even as the Strait of Hormuz remained mostly closed to shipping vessels.
Stock markets rallied on the news and Brent crude futures descended to the US$115 a barrel level. In Malaysia, the benchmark FBM KLCI rose 15.45 points to 1,705.81, about 10 points off the intraday high of 1,715.94.
Investors flocked to the financial services sector, which gained 1.78%, erasing the losses made in earlier in the week. Foreign funds returned to the financial heavyweights, lifting Maybank 26 sen to RM11.62, CIMB 16 sen to RM7.71 and Public Bank eight sen to RM4.76.
There was also bargain-hunting among the lower liners, giving the market a positive breadth of 645 advancing issues compared to 437 declining. Volume was 1.88 billion shares valued at RM1.61bil.
Among the most active stocks, VS Industry dropped 1.5 sen to 19 sen, Zetrix AI rose 1.5 sen to 75.5 sen and Bumi Armada
gained 1.5 sen to 36 sen.
Depite the euphoria, Malacca Securities Research cautioned that the sentiment could be short-lived, given Iran's persistent refusal to negotiate.
"We expect that elevated crude oil prices and ongoing US-Iran tensions may contribute to energy supply disruptions, translating to favourable average selling prices for energy and chemical players.
"However, this could provide near-term headwinds for glove manufacturers, as nitrile glove materials are closely tied to crude oil inventory," it said in its report.
In regional markets, Japan's Nikkei soared 4.65% to 53,440, but the biggest leap was seen in South Korea's Kospi, which surged a whopping 8.2% to 5,466.
Mainland China's Shanghai Composite index was up 1.36% to 3,944 while the CSI 300 gained 1.43% to 4,513. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.97% to 25,276.
