Bursa ends broadly higher on ease in US-China trade war tensions

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed broadly higher today in line with the gains on regional peers as risk appetite improved on the back of the ease in US-China trade war tension.
At 5pm, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 12.7 points up at 1,849.71 from Friday's 1,837.71, backed by persistent buying interests from index-linked counters led by Petronas Chemicals.
The barometer index moved between 1,833.14 and 1,850.01 throughout the day.
Petronas Chemicals contributed 4.03 points to the rise in FBM KLCI, after gaining 28 sen to RM8.48.
The overall market breadth was firmer with gainers overwhelming losers 702 to 249, while 355 counters were unchanged, 563 untraded and 33 others suspended.
Volume decreased to 2.22 billion units worth RM2.10 billion from 3.02 billion units worth RM2.34 billion recorded on Friday.
The Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 0.28% to 3,452.08, Japan's Nikkei improved 0.51% to 21,678.26 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index soared 1.29% to 30,229.58.
A dealer said the global sentiment has improved following Wall Street's rebound from its recent losses as tensions of a trade war between the US and China eased.
It came after President Donald Trump's tweet over the weekend that China would ease trade restrictions, saying "it is the right thing to do", he said.
Among heavyweights, Tenaga advanced 14 sen to RM15.88 and Public Bank and IHH Healthcare were flat at RM23.94 and RM6.05 respectively.
Maybank slipped two sen to RM10.46 and CIMB lost four sen to RM7.02.
Of the actively-traded stocks, UMW O&G rose one sen to 24.5 sen, PUC was up two sen to 25.5 sen, Sapura Energy perked 1.5 sen to 51.5 sen, while Nexgram and Borneo Oil were flat at five sen and eight sen respectively.

The FBM Emas Index was 109.54 points firmer at 12,885.8, FBMT 100 Index advanced 96.89 points to 12,717.8 and the FBM Emas Syariah Index soared 165.02 points to 13,058.72.
The FBM 70 bolstered 149.54 points to 15,317.45 and the FBM Ace jumped 115.44 points to 5,155.09.
Sector-wise, the Finance Index increased 28.42 points to 17,997.35, Plantation Index earned 23.16 points to 7,939.91 and the Industrial Index improved 15.61 points to 3,214.11.
Main Market volume slipped to 1.25 billion units worth RM1.94 billion from 1.36 billion units worth RM1.67 billion on Friday.
Warrants' volume shrank to 598.46 million units valued at RM95.24 million from Friday's 1.34 billion units valued at RM612.73 million.
Volume on the ACE Market, however, increased to 367.43 million shares worth RM70.09 million from 327.84 million shares valued at RM53.07 million previously.
Consumer products accounted for 76.54 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products (301.93 million), construction (88.26 million), trade and services (530.41 million), technology (74.51 million), infrastructure (13.35 million), SPAC (5.14 million), finance (46.11 million), hotels (5.23 million), properties (87.69 million), plantations (14.32 million), mining (160,400), REITs (8.25 million), and closed/fund (62,400).
The physical price of gold as at 5pm stood at RM159.79 per gramme, up 37 sen from RM159.42 at 5pm last Friday. — Bernama