Will Barclays’ latest Wall Street reset finally work?

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia kicked off the trading day higher on Thursday, mirroring the upward trajectory seen in regional markets, mirroring Wall Street's rebound from the previous evening. At 9:04am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) climbed 4.60 points to 1,735.92, marking an improvement from Wednesday's close of 1,731.32.

The benchmark index made a slight opening gain of 0.79 points, settling at 1,732.11. Market breadth was on the positive side, with more shares rising than falling, showing 267 gainers against 139 decliners. An additional 268 stocks remained unchanged, while 2,198 remained untraded, and 16 were temporarily suspended. Trading volume totaled 223.02 million shares, valued at RM141.52 million.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd noted in a subsequent statement that Wall Street's surge was driven by the US Treasury purchasing bonds to stabilize surging yields, which had been negatively impacting global financial markets. This intervention led to a reduction in the US 10-year yield to 4.65%. The company predicted that global markets would continue to be swayed by high bond yields, anticipating the index to remain within the 1,725-1,735 range for the day.

Across the globe, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.11% to 25,779.08, Japan's Nikkei 225 increased 1.13% to 66,061.83, and South Korea's KOSPI Composite Index surged 4.99% to 6,794.15. However, Singapore's Straits Times Index slipped 0.61% to 5,659.52. Among key players, Maybank fell by two sen to RM10.62, Public Bank dropped one sen to RM5.14, CIMB Group rose three sen to RM7.94, and IHH Healthcare increased four sen to RM8.34.

Tenaga Nasional, on the other hand, stayed flat at RM14.40. On the most actively traded list, CBH Engineering Holding surged 4.5 sen to 83.5 sen, Capital A and SMRT Holdings rose half a sen to 34.5 sen and 23 sen, respectively, TWL Holdings remained at 2.5 sen, and JCY International climbed one sen to 52.5 sen. Top gainers included Malaysian Pacific Industries, which jumped 56 sen to RM46.66, YTL Power International gained 24 sen to RM5.12, Allianz Malaysia added 18 sen to RM22.28, Hong Leong Bank rose 14 sen to RM22.82, and MISC gained 11 sen to RM8.17.

On the downside, Nestle saw its share price fall by RM1 to RM103, Ranhill Utilities decreased by 41 sen to RM2.36, Paragon Union lost 11 sen to RM1.54, and BM Greentech and Gas Malaysia each dropped eight sen, ending at RM1.79 and RM5.05 respectively. In terms of broader indices, the FBM 70 Index ended the day up 33.72 points at 18,167.99, the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose 24.10 points to 12,659.23, and the FBM Emas Index increased by 31.06 points to 12,835.80.

The FBM Top 100 Index climbed 31.00 points to 12,650.87, while the FBM ACE Index climbed 32.79 points to 5,335.51. Sector-wise, the Plantation Index surged 26.29 points to 9,307.44, and the Financial Services Index rose 7.30 points to 20,299.65, while the Industrial Products and Services Index dipped 0.21 points to 189.34, and the Energy Index fell by 1.66 points to 775.81.