Strong demand from China ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year has driven crude palm oil prices.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia extended last week’s gains to open higher today as investors took the cue from Wall Street’s positive performance last Friday.

Rakuten Trade equity research vice-president Thong Pak Leng said Wall Street ended higher last Friday as traders chose to focus on the positives — solid labour market and robust economy — ignoring the fact that the US Federal Reserve might prolong the prevailing high interest rates environment.

Locally, he said the FBM KLCI rebounded last Friday, following a correction from the 1,500 level a week before.

“For today, we believe the index will hover within the 1,485 and 1,495 range.

“Plantation stocks may be in focus today as crude palm oil has rallied to almost the RM4,000 per tonne mark due to demand from China for the forthcoming Chinese New Year,” he added.

At 9.05am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 2.86 points to 1,489.23, compared with Monday’s close of 1,486.37.

The barometer index opened 0.98 of-a-point better at 1,487.35.

Similarly, the broader market saw advancers outpacing losers 236 to 115, while 231 counters were unchanged, 1,681 untraded and 15 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 223.65 million units worth RM107.03 million.

Among the heavyweights, Public Bank bagged one sen to RM4.36, CelcomDigi earned three sen to RM4.23, but IHH Healthcare eased three sen to RM5.97.

Maybank, CIMB, Tenaga, and Petronas Chemicals were flat at RM9.03, RM6.01, RM10.44 and RM6.78, respectively.

Of the actives, Widad picked up 1.5 sen to 12.5 sen, Sarawak Consolidated and Artroniq increased two sen each to 31 sen and 30.5 sen, respectively, while Leform was flat at 16 sen.

YNH Property, which hit limit down on Tuesday last week, continued to weaken to 59 sen after losing 26.5 sen or 30.99% this morning. A total of 62.05 million shares were transacted.

Meanwhile, Silver Ridge reached limit down after its shares tumbled 38.53% or 21 sen to 33.5 sen with 3.3 million shares changing hands.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 26.25 points to 11,091.41, the FBM 70 Index increased 39.52 points to 15,080.91, the FBMT 100 Index advanced 22.54 points to 10,756.83, the FBM Emas Shariah Index improved 22.26 points to 11,192.93, and the FBM ACE Index went up 12.52 points to 4,802.67.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index gained 12.77 points to 16,626.29, the Property Index put on 4.99 points to 895.96, the Plantation Index slipped 1.67 points to 7,164.76, the Energy Index added 2.61 points to 845.93 and the Industrial Products and Services Index was 0.52 of-a-point easier at 173.44.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/business/2024/01/22/palm-oil-near-rm4000-fuels-focus-on-plantation-stocks/

Sumber : Free Malaysia Today