KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia ended lower on Wednesday, as elevated United States (US) Treasury yields and weakness in technology stocks weighed on investor sentiment, an analyst said. However, gains in healthcare and telecommunications stocks provided some support to the broader local market. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 2.04 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 1,731.32 compared with Tuesday’s close of 1,733.36. The benchmark index opened 1.39 points weaker at 1,731.97, and fluctuated between 1,725.95 and 1,733.44 throughout the day. On the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 701 to 478, while 563 counters were unchanged, 1,131 untraded and 16 suspended. Turnover shrank to 3.31 billion units valued at RM2.92 billion from 3.74 billion units valued at RM2.91 billion on Tuesday.
It hasn't been like this for a while but the US stocks saw a surge yesterday and rose across the board, supported by the jump in oil price while rally in Amazon.com just made S&P 500 to reach its best day in two months. Wall Street bullish All three major averages closed about 1.25 percent higher in high volume trade, with the Dow up about 222 points. S&P 500 jumped 1.25 percent to 2,084.39 while Nasdaq Composite added 1.26 percent to 4,809.88. Amazon.com jumped 3.43 percent to a record of $703.07, giving the biggest boost to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. All 10 major S&P sectors gained and seven of them were up over 1 percent, led by a 1.75 percent rise in the energy index. Oil rose over 4 percent as supply disruptions in Canada and elsewhere overshadowed fears of oversupply. International stock markets were helped by solid corporate earnings in Europe, progress on Greek debt talks, and a new pledge by Japan that it was prepared to weaken t...