Bursa Malaysia Opens Higher, Tracks Wall Street Gains Amid Tariff Developments
By Abdul Hamid A Rahman
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia opened higher on Monday, taking its cue from Wall Street’s firmer close last week, amid the latest United States tariff developments.
At 9.10 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) added 4.45 points to 1,757.28 compared with Friday’s close of 1,752.83.
The benchmark index had opened 4.14 points higher at 1,756.97.
The broader market was positive with gainers thumping losers 266 to 119, while 308 counters were unchanged, 2,087 counters untraded, and 24 were suspended.
Market turnover stood at 155.05 million shares worth RM109.56 million.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended higher after the US Supreme Court struck down most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, potentially providing relief to companies burdened by higher costs while easing inflationary concerns.
“In response to the ruling, Trump announced the imposition of a 15 per cent global tariff ‘almost immediately’, creating fresh uncertainty over global trade flows,” he told Bernama.
On the domestic front, Thong said the local market undertone remains solid.
“We expect the index to hover within the 1,750-1,760 range today,” he added.
Among index heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM12.22, Public Bank gained four sen to RM5.07, CIMB eased two sen to RM8.47, Tenaga Nasional slipped four sen to RM14.12, while IHH Healthcare jumped 24 sen to RM9.08.
On the most active list, VS Industry added half-a-sen to 39.5 sen, Advance Synergy rose one sen to 8.5 sen, while Velesto was unchanged at 31.5 sen, Astro Malaysia stayed flat at 10 sen, and Pharmaniaga was steady at 31 sen.
Top gainers included Nestle, which surged RM1.00 to RM110.70, LPI Capital improved 22 sen to RM15.48, Allianz advanced 20 sen to RM22.86, Vstecs added 14 sen to RM4.14, and IOI Properties climbed 12 sen to RM3.57.
Among the top losers, Press Metal fell 17 sen to RM7.53, Petronas Dagangan shed 12 sen to RM20.84, QL Resources declined 11 sen to RM3.92, Fraser & Neave slipped 10 sen to RM33.04 and Sunway Bhd eased six sen to RM5.74.
On the index board, the FBMT 100 Index rose 16.93 points to 12,684.82, the FBM Emas Index added 18.43 points to 12,865.21, the FBM 70 Index climbed 72.61 points to 17,818.31, the FBM Emas Shariah Index gained 16.34 points to 12,384.63, and the FBM ACE Index edged up 1.95 points to 4,824.07.
By sector, the Financial Services Index increased 44.05 points to 21,659.72, while the Industrial Products and Services Index was lower by 1.11 points to 176.95, the Energy Index slipped 1.09 points to 774.79, and the Plantation Index edged down 2.23 points to 8,417.75.
-- BERNAMA
