KUALA LUMPUR: Rising global sentiment over renewed bets the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year is keeping the rally going on Bursa Malaysia.
After three consecutive sessions of gains the benchmark FBM KLCI remains on a rise, starting Tuesday 3.46 points higher to cross a psychological resistance at 1,600.85.
“Optimism surrounding the prospects of interest rate cuts continues to buoy global markets and we expect the positive sentiment that is largely supported by the return of foreign funds to remain in place for the local bourse today.
“The lower liners may also fare better, taking cue from the positive developments on Wall Street overnight as traders capitalise onto the positive sentiment as of late,” said Apex Securities Research in its market outlook.
Foreign funds continued to flow into Malaysia’s blue chips with YTL Power rising six sen to RM4.97 and YTL Corp gaining four sen to RM3.38.
In financial services, Hong Leong Bank added eight sen to RM19.42, AMMB gained three sen to RM4.23, Maybank rose one sen to RM9.84 and Public Bank put on two sen to RM4.22.
Consumer-related counters were also seen gaining including Nestle up 20 sen to RM128.20, Panasonic adding 18 sen to RM19.30 and Carlsberg jumping 18 sen to RM18.88.
Among the top actives, Ingenieur was flat at 11 sen, Bina Puri rose 0.5 sen to 7.5 sen and SNS Network rose two sen to 49 sen.