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 financing 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.