Rakuten Trade equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended in positive territory after a Federal Reserve official said that the current policy may be sufficient to slow economic growth and curb inflation, hence paving hopes for the end of rate hikes.
Subsequently, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.24% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.29% as the US 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.32%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index slumped 0.98% on growing concerns of corporate earnings growth going forward.
There were also fresh concerns on Chinese banks’ asset quality due to the possibility of new lending measures to support the local property sector.
Back home, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended flat yesterday, attributed to late buying support amid another lacklustre day.
“Nonetheless, we believe the local bourse will see some buying activities today following positive cues from the US on potential softer interest rates, thus expecting the index to hover within the 1,450-1,460 range,” he said.
At 9.07am, the FBM KLCI rose 1.75 points to 1,449.77 from Tuesday’s closing of 1,448.02. The benchmark index opened 0.61 of-a-point firmer at 1,448.63.
On the broader market, decliners and gainers were neck and neck at 161 to 160, while 257 counters were unchanged, 1,801 untraded and 85 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 201.25 million units valued at RM78.76 million.
Among heavyweights, Public Bank, Axiata Group and Maxis added 2 sen each to RM4.24, RM2.37 and RM3.99 respectively, while Sime Darby Plantation increased 3 sen to RM4.54, PPB Group was up 10 sen to RM14.16, and Maybank perked up 1 sen to RM9.06.
As for the most active counters, CSH eased 0.5 sen to 5.5 sen, Jaks Resources and Hong Seng were both flat at 19.5 sen and 2.5 sen respectively, while Panda Eco ticked up 1 sen to 28 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 14.34 points higher at 10,736.91, the FBMT 100 Index went up 14.16 points to 10,400.71, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index added 13.37 points to 10,906.3.
The FBM 70 Index was 26.40 points better at 14,288.57 while the FBM ACE Index slipped 20.63 points to 5,063.58.
Sector-wise, the financial services index climbed 34.29 points to 16,312.2, the industrial products and services index eased 0.23 of-a-point to 171.47, the energy index added 2.78 points to 824.69, while the plantation index put on 19.59 points to 7,026.16.