KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 25): The FBM KLCI climbed 1.22% today, buoyed by the overnight record closing on Wall Street amid news that the Trump administration agreed to start the transition process for President-elect Joe Biden to the White House. 

Furthermore, the optimism the economic landscape will turn more favourable underpinned the positive sentiment. 

The FBM KLCI rose 19.19 points to 1,597.58, after moving between 1,582.31 and 1,600.20.

Leading the climb on the KLCI today were banking stocks Public Bank Bhd, which surged 54 sen or 2.94% to RM18.892, and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, which climbed 14 sen or 3.85% to RM3.78.

Meanwhile, Hong Leong Bank Bhd rose 20 sen or 1.19% to RM17.04, Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd went up 60 sen or 3.77% to RM16.50, Malayan Banking Bhd increased nine sen or 1.11% to RM8.22 and RHB Bank Bhd rose seven sen or 1.41% to RM5.05.

In contrast, Top Glove Corp Bhd continued to be under selling pressure as the world’s largest glove maker has to shut down its manufacturing plant after the Covid-19 outbreak in its worker dormitories in Meru, Klang. The stock was among the top losers today. It dropped 15 sen or 2.21% to RM6.65.

Remisier Jeffry Azizi Jaafar commented that the FBM KLCI's performance was tracking the overnight gains in Wall Street on Joe Biden’s transition to the White House which provided investors more clarity on the US prospects and policies moving forward.

Meanwhile, he said there is rotational play into oil and gas stocks today given the promising vaccine candidate spurred hopes of a quicker recovery in economic growth and oil demand.

Nonetheless, he opined the local sentiment remains wary of a sharp spike in daily local Covid-19 cases.

Overall, the market was mixed as there were 653 gainers versus 496 decliners, while 483 remained unchanged. A total of 8.91 billion securities were traded for RM4.22 billion, compared to trading volume of 8.36 billion securities and turnover of RM4.28 billion recorded yesterday.

Among indices, the energy index led the gain by percentage, up 4.52% to 810.43, on the back of better oil future prices. At time of writing, Brent crude oil was up 1.15% at US$48.33 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude oil also climbed 1% at US$45.35 per barrel.  

Some oil and gas stocks were actively traded today, such as Sapura Energy Bhd, Bumi Armada Bhd, KNM Group Bhd and Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd.

EA Holdings Bhd topped the most-actively traded list today, after some 718.93 million shares changed hands. It dropped 0.5 sen to three sen.

Other actively traded stocks included AT Systematization Bhd, Kanger International Bhd, Key Alliance Group Bhd and Vsolar Group Bhd.

Gets Global Bhd topped the gainers list today after it closed up 68 sen or 29.82% at RM2.96. The rebound came after the stock retreated for a few sessions from its recent high of RM3.97 on Nov 16 after the stock exchange advised investors to exercise caution in trading the stock's shares.

Other gainers included Malaysia Pacific Industries Bhd, Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd, Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd and Batu Kawan Bhd.

The decliners included Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, Heineken (M) Bhd, Greatech Technology Bhd, TIME dotCom Bhd, Scientex Bhd, Dutch Lady Industries Bhd and Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd.

Bloomberg reported that a rally in global equities cooled Wednesday as investors balanced optimism spurred by vaccines and political developments against a challenging economic outlook amid the pandemic. The US dollar steadied.

A gauge of Asia-Pacific shares gave up an earlier climb of about 1%. South Korean and Chinese stocks turned lower, while those in Japan posted modest gains. US and European futures ticked higher.

The S&P 500 index earlier closed at a record and the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 30,000. Treasury yields dipped, oil held above US$45 a barrel and copper touched the highest since 2014.