Bursa slow to catch up with Asian rally

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia had yet to catch up with the key Asian markets which rallied early Tuesday as the US and China prepared to formalise a trade-war truce.

At 9.15am, the FBM KLCI was up 0.23 of a point or 0.01% to 1,584.96. Turnover was 262.92 million shares valued at RM127.39mil. There were 217 gainers, 112 losers and 262 counters unchanged.

Reuters reported The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday said China should no longer be designated a currency manipulator – a label it applied as the yuan slid in August. China, meanwhile, has allowed the tightly managed currency to climb to its highest point since July.

China’s offshore yuan extended strong gains to the dollar on Tuesday morning to a 5-1/2-month high, supported by rising optimism towards Sino-U.S. trade developments.The offshore yuan surged to a high of 6.8745 per dollar, the firmest level since July 26, Reuters reported.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan opened at an all-time high and drifted higher.

Japan’s Nikkei added 0.8% and hit its highest point in a month. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% and touched a fresh record intraday high.

At Bursa on Monday, foreign funds were net sellers at RM27.3mil and retail investors at RM2.4mil but local institutions were net buyers at RM29.6mil.

Semicon and tech related stocks were among the top gainers early Tuesday, with Dufu up 22 sen to RM3.76 and KESM 20 sen to RM10.34.

Kerjaya Prospek, which resumed trading after announcing it had secured a RM617mil contract on Monday, jumped 11 sen to RM1.43 with 576,300 shares done.

Insurer Allianz extended its recovery, gaining 10 sen to RM15.78.

Genting Plantations, seen as a favourite plantation company to benefit from the recovery in crude palm oil prices, added 10 sen to RM10.70.

Glove maker Kossan added seven sen to RM4.20.

MyEG added five sen to RM1.17 with 27.23 million shares done after its associate company in Indonesia, PT Cartenz Inti Utama secured additional government mandates to roll out its tax monitoring system to 30 more cities.

Nestle lost 60 sen to RM145 with just 300 shares done, Petronas Dagangan six sen lower at RM22.40 while Sime Plantation lost five sen to RM5.37.

RHB Bank shed four sen to RM5.81 while Maxis and UMW shed three sen each to RM5.44 and RM4.37.

Source: TheStar