Malaysia Stock Market (FBM KLCI)

The FTSE KLCI rose 11 points or 0.7% to 1,568 in early deals on Thursday following a rally in Wall Street overnight, amid signs that the US Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged for a long time to come. Traders also cheered reports that the US House of Representatives will vote on Friday on legislation to provide $1.9 trillion in new COVID-19 relief. Meantime, the FDA endorsed Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot virus vaccine for emergency use. In local news, local media reports said that Malaysia may be ready for a general election once half of its 32 million population is vaccinated. On the business front, Malaysia’s national oil-and-gas company Petronas said it has discovered oil at offshore East Java, Indonesia. Press Metal Aluminium jumped 6% after reporting its net profit rose 6% yoy on lower raw material and finance costs. Genting Plantations went up 1.1% after the company posted a jump of 28.1% yoy in net profits in Q4 and planned to pay a special dividend. Historically, the Malaysia Stock Market (FBM KLCI) reached an all time high of 1896.23 in July of 2014. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, also known as the FBM KLCI, is a major stock market index which tracks the performance of 30 largest companies by full market capitalization listed on the Main Board of the Bursa Malaysia. It is a free-float (minimum of 15%), capitalization-weighted stock market index. The KLCI Index has a base value of 100 as of January 2, 1977.