Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 19): The FBM KLCI edged higher in early trade on Wednesday, in line with the higher overnight close at most global markets and Wall Street, and lifted by Genting-linked stocks and blue chips.

At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI added 0.51 points to 1,818.89.

The early gainers included British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, United Plantations Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Genting Plantations Bdh, Pos Malaysia Bhd, Genting Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, Wing Tai Malaysia Bhd and Genting Malaysia Bhd.

Regionally, Japanese stocks rose on Wednesday as investors held out hope for more robust growth after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delayed a tax hike and called an early election to seek a fresh mandate for his aggressive policies to shore up the economy, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was a touch lower while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.6 percent after Abe's announcement late on Tuesday, it said.

M & A Securities research head Rosnani Rasul in a market preview Wednesday said Wall Street touched historic high again as few surprise development jacked up sentiment.

She said the S&P 500 and DJIA added 10.48 (0.51%0 and 40.07 (0.23%) points to end at 2,051.80 and 17,687.82 respectively.

Rosnani said US inflation for September came in at surprisingly benign or growing by a mere 1.7%, matching August numbers, suggesting that demand pull inflation has been kept at bay, probably pushing monetary tightening action temporarily away for now.

She said this was actually below the Fed self-imposed target of 2.1% in inflation goal, giving the global equity market a sigh of relief.

“In another development, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has called for a snap poll, 2 years ahead of deadline.

“He suggested a delay on the much hated consumption tax increase in 2018 after the economy suffered worst-than-expected performance in the last 2 quarters as a result of the recent increase in the said tax from 5%-8%.

“As of 3Q14, Japan is in technical recession after back-to-back quarters of economic deceleration.

“In view of the above and added with the pre-rally ahead of the UMNO 2014 assembly next week, there is a fair chance that the local market will gain good traction today,” she said.

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