KL stocks may rise on Wall St rally (BT)

MALAYSIAN shares are likely to open higher today as investor sentiment improves with Wall Street rallying the day before and crude oil jumping on supply concerns.

“There will be an uptrend but how it gets sustained depends on construction stocks and whether the volumes actually improve because so far the gains have been limited to retailers,” said an analyst with an investment bank.

The analyst was looking at construction and engineering stocks such as MRCB, UEM Land and KNM Group. She said planters may tread higher following a likely rebound in crude palm oil prices on the back of higher crude oil.

Malaysia’s benchmark stock index ended 0.22 per cent lower at 1,012.01 points yesterday. US stocks rallied yesterday as better-than-expected results from the No. 2 US home improvement retailer, Lowe’s Cos Inc, helped spark broad-based buying on hopes the recession is easing and consumer spending is stabilising.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average leapt 235.44 points (2.85 per cent) to 8,504.08.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq added a hefty 52.22 points (3.11 per cent) to 1,732.36 and the broad-market Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 26.83 points (3.04 per cent) to finish at 909.71. - Reuters