KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s benchmark FBM KLCI paced higher after a weak start as hopes for US policymakers show signs of optimism over US debt ceiling negotiations.
Following a meeting with congressional leaders, US President Joe Biden and House of Representatives speaker Kevin McCarthy said talks over raising the debt ceiling have yielded progress.
At the lunch break, the FBM KLCI was up 3.8 points to 1,427.3. The broader market was negative with 369 decliners compared with 322 gainers.
Trading volume was 1.45 billion shares valued with RM722.84mil.
Sentiment in regional markets were also lifted by the recently concluded US discussions, with Japan’s Nikkei rising 0.8% to 30,079 and South Korea’s Kospi gaining 0.5% to 2,493.
China’s markets meanwhile remained soft following the release of soft economic data. The mainland composite index was up 0.2% to 3,283 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.55% to 19,867.
On Bursa Malaysia, YTL Corp was the top traded counter with 88.13 million shares exchanging hands. The stock leapt 7.5 sen higher to 74 sen.
Second top traded Vinvest was down 0.5 sen to eight sen while Metronic dropped one sen to one sen.
Among the blue chips, Sime Darby Plantation jumped 15 sen to RM4.56 to lead gains, while Public Bank rose three sen to RM3.98 and Tenaga Nasional climbed five sen to RM9.78. – The Star