Bursa Malaysia rebounds to open higher after US Fed rates stay unchanged

Bursa Malaysia rebounded to open higher on Thursday driven by increased buying activity following the decision by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to keep interest rates unchanged.

At 9.11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 2.77 points to 1,538.56 from Wednesday’s close of 1,535.79.

The benchmark index opened 3.33 points firmer at 1,539.12.

On the broader market, gainers led decliners 282 to 139, while 273 counters were unchanged, 1,642 untraded and 11 suspended.

Turnover amounted to 232.83 million units worth RM114.44 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng noted that Wall Street rallied as all three major indices closed at record highs after traders acknowledged that the Fed would follow up with three adjustments to interest rates until year end.

As a result, the Dow Jones Index Average gained 401 points while the Nasdaq jumped 203 points with the US 10-year yield easing to 4.277 per cent.

Back home, he expects the index to experience a rebound today after a clearer picture from the Fed overnight.

“Hence, we expect the index to hover within the 1,540-1,550 range today, underpinned by buying interest in the banking, construction and utilities sectors,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank lost two sen to RM9.55, Public Bank was flat at RM4.24, while CIMB added four sen to RM6.52, Tenaga Nasional gained two sen to RM11.52 and Petronas Chemicals increased three sen to RM6.86.

For the actives, Eco World International rose two sen to 36.5 sen, Eduspec was half-a-sen higher at 14 sen, while TWL was flat at 3.5 sen.

Both Metronic and Top Glove were half-a-sen easier at 1.5 sen and 85.5 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index edged up 28.01 points to 11,512.97 and the FBMT 100 Index garnered 25.44 points to 11,164.32.

Meanwhile, the FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 32.06 points to 11,594.08, the FBM ACE Index improved by 13.71 points to 4,786.72 and the FBM 70 Index increased by 51.39 points to 15,857.54.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index inched up 12.22 points to 17,136.40, and the Plantation Index gained 6.88 points to 7,301.61.

The Energy Index went up 3.04 points to 939.71 and the Industrial Products and Services Index perked up 0.82 of-a-point to 178.06.

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