BURSA MALAYSIA STAGES MILD REBOUND

By NurulJannah Kamaruddin

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia rebounded slightly after shrinking in the previous session mirroring Wall Street’s recovery, but sentiment remains weak due to uncertainties over US inflationary pressures.

At 9.09 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 1.55 points to 1,593.83 compared to yesterday’s close of 1,592.28 

The market barometer opened 0.63 of-a-point higher at 1,592.91.

Gainers outnumbered losers 195 to 130 while 230 counters were unchanged, 1,764 untraded and 22 suspended.

Turnover totalled 197.34 million units worth RM112.92 billion.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd's vice president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said US President Donald Trump's delayed reciprocal tariffs implementation in foreign nations provided some relief to the market, prompting the US 10-year yield to dip to 4.533 per cent.

“We believe that funds will converge within the Asian region and the local bourse may benefit from the spillover effect.

“As such, we expect the index to hover within the 1,590-1,600 range today,” he said.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd attributed the Wall Street gains to a rally in Nasdaq heavyweights like Nvidia after Hewlett Packard Enterprise shipped its first Nvidia Blackwell family-based artificial intelligence computing system.

In the commodities market, Brent crude traded within a tight range of around US$74-US$75 per barrel, amid prospects of Russian-Ukraine peace talks while gold prices surged toward US$2,928 per ounce.

Malaysia is also set to release its 2024 economic data later today and is expected to be higher than the 5.1 per cent advance estimate. The growth is forecasted to be driven by the expected 4.8 per cent growth in the fourth quarter. 

Among the heavyweights, Maybank extended its downtrend, losing four sen to RM10.48, CIMB improved one sen to RM8.29, while Public Bank and Tenaga Nasional were unchanged at RM4.45 and RM13.88, respectively.

IHH Healthcare added four sen to RM7.25 and CelcomDigi eased four sen to RM3.83.

Harvest Miracle led active counters, adding half-a-sen to 15 sen, Dialog was 26 sen weaker at RM1.55, while Widad and Aneka Jaringan were flat at 4.0 sen and half-a-sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index advanced 5.56 points to 12,132.70, the FBMT 100 Index was 2.46 points better at 11,831.83 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index bagged 12.05 points to 11,945.14.

The FBM 70 Index dropped 31.74 points to 17,903.61 and the FBM ACE Index lost 2.01 points to 5,217.23.

Sector-wise, the Plantation Index was 7.79 points higher at 7,489.44 and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.24 points to 165.41.

The Financial Services Index shrank 9.56 points to 19,235.68 and the Energy Index declined 14.85 points to 803.51.

-- BERNAMA