KUALA LUMPUR – Bursa Malaysia opened slightly higher today despite a flat performance on Wall Street on Friday and weakened US Treasury yields.
Investors were digesting a much-weaker-than-expected US jobs report for the world’s largest economy, which added 235,000 jobs last month, far fewer than the forecast increase of 720,000, dealers said.
At 9.22am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) edged up 0.55 of a point to 1,589.74 from last Friday’s close of 1,589.19.
It opened 1.48 points better at 1,590.67.
Market breadth was positive with gainers leading losers 328 to 262, while 362 counters were unchanged, 1,286 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover stood at 721.03 million units worth RM335.99 million.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was trading higher against the US dollar today, still on positive investors’ sentiment tracking Malaysia’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which climbed to 43.4 last month from 40.1 in July.
The local note is continuing last week’s trend, trading on an uptrend versus the greenback. On a weekly appreciation, the ringgit rose by about 1.07% against the US dollar last Friday.
At 9am today, the local note improved to 4.1410/1440 from 4.1445/1475 on Friday. – Bernama, September 6, 2021
