KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened mixed in early trade today, buoyed by renewed positive sentiment with upside bias towards banking stocks, despite weaker performance on Wall Street, a dealer said.
At 9.15am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 1.74 points to 1,557.67 from yesterday’s close of 1,555.93.
The index opened 1.01 points higher at 1,556.94, but retreated thereafter and recovered after nine minutes into trading.
On the broader market, losers surpassed gainers 246 to 161, while 239 counters were unchanged, 1,596 untraded and 19 others suspended.
Meanwhile, the ringgit reversed yesterday’s gains to open slightly lower against the US dollar this morning as sentiment for the greenback strengthened, an economist said.
At 9.02am, the local note stood at 4.3815/3855 versus the greenback compared with yesterday’s close of 4.3755/3785.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid expects the ringgit to remain sideways as inflation data from the United States continues to remain at an elevated level with the latest Consumer Price Index print came in at 8.3% for April 2022 against 8.1% consensus.
“This would mean the US Federal Reserve will be hawkish and likely to be aggressive in their monetary tightening measures,” he said.
Consequently, the US Dollar Index has gone up further to 103.981 points, he added.
Bank Negara Malaysia yesterday increased the overnight policy rate by 25 basis points to 2% after its third Monetary Policy Committee meeting this year.
The central bank said the sustained reopening of the global economy and the improvement in labour market conditions have continued to support the recovery of economic activity.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.
The local note appreciated slightly against the Singapore dollar to 3.1526/1559 from yesterday’s close of 3.1583/1607, increased marginally against the euro to 4.6102/6144 from 4.6218/6250, and rose vis-à-vis the British pound to 5.3638/3687 from 5.4147/4184.
However, the Japanese yen decreased slightly to 3.3758/3792 from 3.3723/3748 yesterday. – Bernama, May 12, 2022
