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.
Naoki Tamura , a hawkish member of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) , stated on Thursday that the central bank must raise interest rates to at least 1% by late next year, reinforcing the BOJ's commitment to steady monetary tightening. This marks the first time a BOJ policymaker has publicly specified a target level for short-term borrowing costs. Tamura argued that the likelihood of Japan's economy achieving the BOJ's 2% inflation target on a sustainable basis is improving, which necessitates raising interest rates to levels considered neutral by around late 2025. Tamura explained that Japan's neutral interest rate —the rate that neither stimulates nor cools the economy—is estimated to be at least around 1%. "As such, it’s necessary to push up our short-term policy rate to at least around 1% by the latter half of the fiscal year ending March 2026 to sustainably achieve the BOJ’s price goal," he said during a speech to business leaders in Okayama, western Japan . Hi...