Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 13): The FBM KLCI slipped 2.11 points or 0.13% to close at 1,685.30 today after investors appeared to have sidelined big capitalisation (big cap) stocks in favour of smaller plays.

At 5pm, Bursa Malaysia's small cap index rose 73.27 points or 0.58% to 12,607.9.

“Despite the external (share market) rally, local Government-Linked Companies are possibly being sidelined as investors are still waiting for local leads,” Stephen Soo, senior technical analyst at TA Securities Holdings Bhd told theedgemarkets.com.

Across Bursa Malaysia, 2.63 billion shares were traded for RM1.88 billion as 435 gainers outpaced 313 decliners.

Soo said oil and gas stocks Bumi Armada Bhd and Barakah Offshore Petroleum Bhd rose in heavy trade amid higher crude oil prices. Bumi Armada shares closed unchanged at 22.5 sen with some 171 million units transacted while Barakah rose 0.5 sen to 14 sen with about 142 million shares changing hands.

Other top-active stocks included property developer Eastern & Oriental Bhd, which saw some 43 million shares transacted. The stock rose 3.5 sen to 88.5 sen.

Asian stock markets closed substantially higher today after US shares climbed overnight on Tuesday.

Today, Japan’s Nikkei 255 closed up 1.34%, South Korea's Kospi added 0.5% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was 1.16% higher. Reuters reported that Asian stocks reached a more than four-month high on Wednesday, lifted by optimism that the US and China might be able to hammer out a deal to resolve their nearly year-long trade dispute.

Overnight in the US, it was reported that shares at Wall Street rallied on Tuesday as investors were heartened by a tentative congressional spending deal to avoid another partial Federal government shutdown and by optimism surrounding US-China trade negotiations.

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