KUALA LUMPUR: Key Asian markets including Bursa Malaysia advanced on Thursday as investor sentiment was shored up by the strong rebound on Wall Street though selling of the ringgit continued.
The main gainers at midday were CIMB, Maybank and Public Bank while Maxis also attracted investor interest.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 16.33 points or 1.03% to 1,596.70. Turnover was 1.16 billion shares valued at RM932.97 million. There were 587 gainers, 180 losers and 237 stocks unchanged.
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar and the Singapore dollar. It was quoted at 4.2515 against the greenback compared with the previous close of 4.2460.
The ringgit was firmer at 6.5914 against the pound sterling compared with the previous close of 6.6531 and at 3.0305 against the Singapore dollar versus the previous close of 3.0291.
Reuters reported a strong rebound on Wall Street eased investors' fears of a prolonged global market rout. Expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve might not raise interest rates next month also aided sentiment.
At Bursa Malaysia, CIMB rose 15 sen to RM4.86 and added 2.18 points to the KLCI while Maybank gained 12 sen to RM8.62 and nudged the index up by 1.95 points. Public Bank gained 10 sen to RM17.94. AmBank bounced back 23 sen to RM4.62.
Telcos also climbed, led by Maxis, which advanced 20 sen to RM6.66 and gave the KLCI a 2.57 point boost. DiGi added three sen to RM5.23 and Axiata edged up one sen to RM6.16. Telekom fell one sen to RM6.47.
Tenaga rose six sen to RM11.08.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM23 to RM1,890 per tonne. Sime Darby was flat at RM7.45, KL Kepong and IOI Corp rose two sen to RM20.82 and RM3.98 while PPB Group added six sen to RM15.08.
AirAsia managed to climb 7.5 sen to 85.5 sen, snapping the recent decline in its share price which saw it hitting fresh record lows.
Brent crude climbed by more than US$1 a barrel on Thursday on an unexpected fall in US crude inventories and a rally in global equity markets, but a stronger dollar capped gains.
However, it shed some of the early gains and was up 97 cents to US$44.11. US light crude added 82 cents to US$39.43.
Petronas Dagangan added 18 sen to RM21.28, Petronas Gas four sen to RM20.78 and Petronas Chemicals three sen to RM5.87. SK Petro advanced six sen to RM1.59.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.34% to 18,623.28;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 2.53% to 21,613.48;
CSI 300 rose 2.1% to 3,089.38;
Shanghai’s Composite Index rose 1.55% to 2,972.57;
Shenzen Composite rose 1.06% to 1,713.78;
Hang Seng China Enterprise jumpe3d 3.42% to 9,750.14;
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 1.29% to 7,815.14;
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.69% to 1,907.12 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index rebounded 2.05% to 2,931.78.
Spot gold rose US$2.25 to US$1,127.51.
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