Bursa opens slightly higher on renewed buying interest 

KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher on renewed buying interests in the local bourse. 

At 9.05am, the key index rose by 3.27 points to 1,421.96 from yesterday’s close of 1,418.69, after opening 2.57 points higher at 1,421.26.

On the broader market, gainers led losers 162 to 91, while 163 counters were unchanged, 1,824 untraded and eight others suspended.

Turnover stood at 80.30 million units worth RM31.56 million.

For today, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng said he expects some buying activities to emerge and the benchmark index to hover within the 1,415-1,430 range today.

“Meanwhile, crude palm oil closed marginally lower at RM3,946 per tonne, while the Brent crude ended higher at around US$105 per barrel on concerns of a potential civil war in Libya,” he added.  

Among the heavyweights, Maybank gained two sen to RM8.60, Public Bank rose three sen to RM4.39 and Petronas Chemicals improved nine sen to RM8.43, while CIMB was flat at RM5.09, IHH Healthcare eased two sen to RM6.31 and Hong Leong Bank fell eight sen to RM20.10.

As for the actives, Hibiscus Petroleum increased three sen to 90.5 sen, Dagang Nexchange was one sen higher at 77.5 sen and Scope Industries edged up half-a-sen to 16.5 sen, while Sapura Energy and KNM were flat at 4.5 sen and 12 sen, respectively, and Metronic Global slipped two sen to seven sen. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index bagged 25.73 points to 10,117.86, the FBM Emas Shariah Index increased 24.49 points to 10,177.06, the FBM 70 was 38.72 points higher at 12,200.75, the FBMT 100 Index improved 24.77 points to 9,873.6, and the FBM ACE rose by 31.11 points to 4,635.11.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index expanded 31.22 points to 16,028.47, the Industrial Products and Services Index added 1.25 points to 173.05, the Energy Index rose 7.48 points to 639.85, and the Plantation Index widened 19.12 points to 6,607.59. 

Meanwhile, the ringgit opened higher against the US dollar today after four consecutive days of declines, tracking the better performance of the equities market amid the risk-on mode, analysts said. 

At 9am, the local currency rose to 4.4225/4260 against the US dollar compared with 4.4270/4285 at the close yesterday.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the US dollar Index (DXY) – which had continued to march higher to 107.13 points yesterday amid the United States (US) Federal Reserve's (Fed) hawkish statement – took a breather at 107.0 in today’s Asian session.

According to news reports, Fed officials Christopher Waller and James Bullard agreed that a 75 basis points hike is bound to happen in the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, which had helped to support the greenback.

However, the US Nonfarm Payroll (NFP), which would be released later tonight, is expected to show some signs of a slowdown, declining to 268,000 in June from 390,000 in May (based on the consensus estimates,) resulting in the greenback’s mild retreat.

“Nonetheless, the US dollar might linger around RM4.42 against the ringgit as the greenback will remain in high demand,” he said.

At the same time, ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the greenback’s rise was backed by the release of the US Initial Jobless Claims data which was slightly above expectations but in line with pre-pandemic levels, reflecting that the US economy is still in pretty good shape. 

The US dollar had also received a boost from the United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation, which added to the uncertain political and macroeconomic scenario, thus increasing demand for safe-haven assets, he added.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies, except for the euro.

The local currency eased against the British pound at 5.3265/3307 from Thursday’s close of 5.3115/3133, slipped against the Singapore dollar to 3.1621/1650 from 3.1601/1616 previously and weakened versus the Japanese yen to 3.2557/2587 from 3.2537/2551 yesterday.

However, the ringgit rose vis-à-vis the euro to 4.5048/5083 from 4.5186/5197 on Thursday. – Bernama, July 8, 2022