KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia and the ringgit chalked up early gains to kick off the second week of the year with new vigour.
Renewed buying interest, mainly in transportation and logistics stocks, helped the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) add 4.59 points, for a 0.31% gain, over last Friday’s close of 1,480.55 in the first five minutes of trading.
The index had started the day 4.01 points higher at 1,484.56 points.
Meanwhile, the ringgit took advantage of the weaker US economic data that was released last Friday to trade higher against the greenback today. The data had triggered a significant drop in US Treasury yields, an analyst said.
At 9.01am, the local note rose 185 basis points to 4.3820/4.3860 versus the US dollar from last Friday’s close of 4.4005/4.4070.