Bursa Malaysia Opens Higher In Line With Wall Street's Upbeat Performance

KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, following Wall Street’s upbeat performance driven by falling US Treasury yields and the White House’s easing tariff rhetoric, including a planned rollback of 25 per cent car-related tariffs.

At 9.05 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.30 points to 1,519.86 from yesterday’s close of 1,515.56.

The benchmark index had initially gained 2.51 points, opening at 1,518.07.

Market breadth was positive, with 146 gainers outpacing 93 decliners. A total of 200 counters were unchanged, 1,980 untraded, and 96 suspended.

Turnover stood at 65.22 million shares, valued at RM26.55 million.

It was reported that United States (US) Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that US President Donald Trump’s administration had reached its first trade deal but declined to name the country involved.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said that a trade deal could fuel further upward momentum in the market, alongside optimism around upcoming mega-cap earnings.

“In view of the positive Wall Street performance, we remain optimistic that buying momentum may persist, though the upside could be capped due to the Labour Day public holiday,” it said in a note today.

Traders will also monitor the release of the US first quarter of gross domestic product (GDP) results and China’s April manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data.  

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added four sen to RM9.99, Tenaga Nasional and CIMB perked up two sen each to RM13.66 and RM7.04 respectively, while Public Bank and IHH Healthcare were unchanged each at RM4.43 and RM6.87 respectively.

As for the actives, Velesto rose by one sen to 16 sen, Eden Inc gained 1.5 sen to 16.5 sen, Jaks Resources climbed half-a-sen to 9.5 sen, while Ingenieur Gudang and Jiankun International were flat each at 3.5 sen and three sen, respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index advanced 30.95 points to 11,305.36, the FBMT 100 Index increased 31.37 points to 11,076.33, the FBM Emas Shariah Index jumped 28.72 points to 11,146.45, the FBM 70 Index garnered 45.47 points to 15,950.46, while the FBM ACE Index was down 0.05 of-a-point to 4,618.05.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index soared 43.71 points to 18,143.82, the Industrial Products and Services Index firmed 0.09 of-a-point to 149.01, the Energy Index gained 3.13 points to 681.09, and the Plantation Index put on 4.78 points to 7,167.13.

-- BERNAMA