Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (March 10): The FBM KLCI rose 0.16 point on bargain hunting after falling on weaker oil prices at below US$50 a barrel and as investors anticipated the US interest rate decision next week.

At 5pm, the KLCI closed at 1,717.58 points after falling to its intraday low at 1,713.55 points. Yesterday, the index dropped 8.12 points.

Today, Mercury Securities Sdn Bhd research head Edmund Tham told theedgemarkets.com: “Market movement may have seemed volatile today, but it ended with a fractional difference."

US interest rate sentiment is influencing world markets ahead of the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Commitee (FOMC) meeting this Tuesday and Wednesday (March 14 and 15) to decide on the country's interest rate policy.

Later today, investors will closely watch the US' non-farm payrolls report, which will offer clues on the country's interest rate direction.

In Malaysia, Tham said the market would still be on it toes before the FOMC meeting.

Bursa Malaysia saw 3.4 billion shares worth RM3.19 billion traded. There were 471 gainers and 435 decliners.

Major decliners included oil and gas-related stocks Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd and Shell Refining Co (Federation of Malaya) Bhd as crude oil sentiment hit Malaysian shares.

Reuters reported that Brent crude oil was up 35 cents at US$52.54 a barrel by 0950 GMT, after falling 1.7 percent on Thursday and five percent the day before in its biggest percentage decline in a year.

US crude was up 40 cents at US$49.68 a barrel. It fell below US$50 on Thursday for the first time since December.

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