KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed almost flat on Tuesday as buying interest rotated away from index heavyweights towards smaller-cap construction stocks, with sentiment affected by geopolitical uncertainty, said an analyst. At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 0.39 of a point to 1,714.40 from Monday’s close of 1,714.79. The benchmark index opened 1.65 points lower at 1,713.14 and moved between 1,710.44 and 1,714.50 throughout the trading session. The broader market was almost evenly balanced, with decliners leading gainers 548 to 546, while 598 counters were unchanged, 1,107 were untraded and 25 were suspended. Turnover expanded to 4.13 billion units valued at RM3.14 billion from 3.60 billion units valued at RM2.45 billion on Monday.
BlackRock Inc sees significant growth opportunities in Asia's infrastructure sector, driven by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) , which is also increasing energy and water demands across the region. Over the next five years, the demand for data centers in Asia is expected to double , according to Brad Kim, BlackRock’s head of Asia-Pacific diversified infrastructure. In addition, water infrastructure will need to nearly double to meet the cooling needs of these data centers, while overall energy consumption is projected to rise by about 50% across the Asia-Pacific region in the next decade. As AI technology proliferates, the global surge in electricity demand is straining available power supplies, particularly in data center-dense regions. Asia is no exception, with major tech companies such as Amazon and Microsoft committing billions to build data centers in Southeast Asia . Despite the rapid development, Asia still lags behind other regions in infras...