KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian blue chips rose on Thursday, tracking Wall Street equities that were lifted overnight by the US government's planned buyback of long-term Treasuries to bolster market liquidity.
The FBM KLCI was up 4.05 points to 1,735.37 at 9.05am, buoyed by a rally in YTL stocks. YTL Power said yesterday it had entered into a strategic partnership with JLand Groupto undertake a joint development at Sedenak Tech Park West in Johor, which will include a new gigawatt-scale data centre campus.
YTL Power surged 32 sen to RM5.20 and YTL Corp jumped 18 sen to RM2.40.
There was also buying interest in plantations and PETRONAS-related stocks, including SD Guthrie, up eight sen to RM6.62, IOI rising three sen to RM4.58 and MISC gaining 11 sen to RM6.17.
PETRONAS Chemicals slid eight sen to RM4.61 after a slight gains in the previous session following its quarterly earnings announcement.
CBH Engineering was the most active counter on the market, jumping eight sen to 87 sen following its announcement it had secured a RM246mil contract for a data centre in Johor.
The improved trading sentiment from receding US Treasury yeilds comes despite crude oil prices inching higher amid the escalating tensions in the Middle East. Brent crude futures for October delivery had passed US$92 a barrel, a fresh four-week high as US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there were no plans to resume talks with Iran.
Overnight, the release of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes showed a deepening concern for inflation, which could weigh on investor sentiment moving forward.
While the Fed had voted to maintain its lending rate at the meeting - with three policymakers in favour of a quarter percentage point increase - a larger group of committee members viewed that policy tightening would be necessary if the rate of inflation did not decline, the minutes showed.
