Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 4): The FBM KLCI closed up 10.22 points or 0.64% today, after world share markets rose amid US-China trade talks optimism and as investors evaluated news that the US' October job growth slowed less than expected.

At Bursa Malaysia, the KLCI closed at its intraday high at 1,603.56 at 5pm today, led by top percentage gainers Hartalega Holdings Bhd and Top Glove Corp Bhd.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Victor Wan said the positive sentiment across US shares traded at Wall Street on Friday, spilled over to Asian equities today.

“It (KLCI) has a good run up already over the past few sessions. It has gone overboard. The 1,600 level seems to be new resistance for KLCI,” Wan told theedgemarkets.com today.

Across Bursa today, 2.56 billion shares worth RM1.86 billion were traded. Among KLCI's 30 components, Hartalega closed 17 sen or 3.17% higher at RM5.54 to be the index's top percentage gainer, followed by Top Glove.

Top Glove shares were up 12 sen or 2.73% at RM4.52.

In currency markets, the ringgit strengthened to 4.1505 against the US dollar at the time of writing today, ahead of Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) interest rate decision tomorrow (Nov 5).

BNM's monetary policy committee (MPC) will hold their final 2019 meeting tomorrow. At the latest meeting on Sept 12, the MPC decided to maintain the overnight policy rate at 3%.

Today, world share markets took cue from US-China trade talks and the US' jobs data. Reuters reported Asian shares surged on Monday with a broad regional gauge hitting more than 14-week highs, as growing optimism over US-China trade talks and upbeat US job data boosted global investors’ appetite for riskier assets.

It was reported that the US and China both said on Friday that they had made progress in talks aimed at defusing their protracted trade war, and US officials said a deal could be signed this month.

"US job growth slowed less than expected in October and hiring in the prior two months was stronger than previously estimated, data from the Labor Department showed on Friday," Reuters reported.

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