Bursa Malaysia Opens Higher With US-China Tariff Pause

KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia started the week on a positive note today, tracking gains on Wall Street after the United States (US) and China agreed to a 90-day pause in their trade dispute.

The pause includes temporarily reducing tariffs to 10 per cent for the US and 30 per cent for China.

At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) surged 21.65 points or 1.40 per cent to 1,568.15, up from Friday’s close of 1,546.50.

The benchmark index had opened 14.89 points higher at 1,561.39.

Turnover stood at 348.28 million shares, valued at RM318.34 million.

Market breadth was positive, with 546 gainers outnumbering 114 losers; 240 counters were unchanged, 1,483 untraded, and eight suspended.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said the US 10-year yield has edged higher to 4.473 per cent although a US runaway inflation has been averted,

The local bourse will resume trading today following a lacklustre display last week. Thong believes the FBM KLCI will play catch-up today.

“We expect the index to trend within the 1,550-1,570 range today,” he said.

Among heavyweights, Maybank gained 13 sen to RM10.02, Public Bank added two sen to RM4.46, Tenaga Nasional rose 12 sen to RM14.42 and CIMB increased 28 sen to RM7.15. Kuala Lumpur Kepong was flat at RM19.80.

In active trade, Inari was 28 sen to RM2.22, Harvest edged up 1.5 sen to 16.5 sen and Nationgate strengthened 8.0 sen to RM1.66 while Jaikun and CBH Engineering were flat at 3.0 sen and 24 sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index jumped 138.30 points to 11,688.34, the FBMT 100 Index soared 171.88 points to 11,457.81, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index went up 160.74 points to 11,636.50.

The FBM 70 Index notched up 303.96 points to 16,617.66, and the FBM ACE Index improved by 33.58 points to 4,716.53.

Across sectors, the Financial Services Index climbed 254.49 points to 18,309.78, the Industrial Products and Services Index earned 2.02 points to 156.46, the Energy Index bagged 15.09 points to 708.53, and the Plantation Index perked 28.02 points to 7,274.45.

-- BERNAMA