Bursa, Asian markets get a boost from firm Wall Street close

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia and Asian markets traded firmer on Friday as investor sentiment was shored up by the strong overnight close on Wall Street on hopes of easing US-China trade war tensions.

At 9.08am, the KLCI was up 6.29 points or 0.39% to 1,606.04. Turnover was 108.43 million shares valued at RM40.55mil. There were 175 gainers, 54 losers and 163 counters unchanged.

Reuters reported Asian stocks tracked global peers and rose while safe havens such as government bonds and the yen were sold amid signs of easing US-China trade tensions and as firm US economic data bolstered risk appetites.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.2%, putting it on track for a 2% weekly gain – which would make it the best week since mid-June.

Australian stocks gained 0.5%, South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.3% and Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.6%.

At Bursa Malaysia, precision parts maker MMIS was up 2.5 sen to 12.5 sen with 25,000 shares done when it made its debut on the LEAP Market.

MISC rallied 45 sen to RM7.94 on strong prospects for the company while UMW added 26 sen to RM5.28 and Hap Seng nine sen to RM9.84.

BIMB and G3-WA rose eight sen each to RM4.12 and RM2.27 while Digi and LC Titan added seven sen each to RM4.97 and RM2.56. G3 gained seven sen to RM2.54 and IHH six to RM5.82.

Hartalega fell seven sen to RM5.10 and MAHB five sen to RM8.40 while Ewein lost 3.5 sen to 61.5 sen.

Source: TheStar