KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed marginally lower on Friday, as cautious sentiment persisted, with investors remaining on the sidelines amid ongoing conflicts in West Asia, said an analyst. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 2.80 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 1,695.50 from Thursday’s close of 1,698.30. The benchmark index opened 5.82 points higher at 1,704.12, and moved between 1,693.65 and 1,708.12 throughout the day. However, market breadth remained positive, with gainers outnumbering losers 634 to 415, while 521 counters were unchanged, 1,077 untraded and 10 suspended. Turnover improved to 3.38 billion units worth RM2.95 billion from yesterday’s 3.20 billion units worth RM3.50 billion.
Wall Street ends higher on Tuesday as energy stock rose along with oil prices after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border.
The three major U.S. indexes recovered from a morning selloff that was triggered by the overseas news despite some strong U.S. economic data.
Relatively light trading appeared to exaggerate swings in the market, according to Frankel, as many market participants were away ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Markets will be closed all day Thursday and close early Friday.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 19.51 points, or 0.11 percent, to 17,812.19, the S&P 500 gained 2.55 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,089.14 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.33 points, or 0.01 percent, to 5,102.81.
Investors steered clear of many of Nasdaq's higher-valuation stocks like Netflix and instead took safety in cheaper stocks due to geopolitical concerns, according to J.J. Feldman, portfolio manager at Los Angeles-based Miracle Mile Advisors.
The U.S. economy grew at a 2.1 percent pace in the third-quarter, compared with an earlier estimate of 1.5 percent, data showed, but consumer sentiment in November was the weakest since September 2014 ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,893 to 1,162, for a 1.63-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,659 issues rose and 1,121 fell for a 1.48-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 9 new 52-week highs and 8 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 63 new highs and 74 new lows.
About 6.9 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges below the 7.2 billion average for the last 20 sessions, according to Reuters data.
Source: The Edge Markets
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