MISC, Hong Leong Bank lead KLCI up, ringgit firmer

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips got off to a strong start on Thursday on continued fund buying of index stocks including MISC and Hong Leong Bank as the ringgit strengthened against the major currencies.

At 11am, the KLCI was up 7.31 points or 0.43% to 1,718.45. Turnover was 952.61 million shares valued at RM768.35mil. There wee 317 gainers, 291 losers and 291 counters unchanged.

The ringgit was firmer versus the US dollar at 4.1080 compared with the previous close of 4.1980 while it strengthened against the pound sterling and Singapore dollar. It was at 6.3623 to pound sterling versus 6.4503 while it was 2.9864 to the Singapore dollar from 2.9994.

Reuters reported MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan  rose 1.6 percent to its highest since mid-August. The index had fallen the previous day after soft consumer inflation in China added to concerns about the world's second-biggest economy.

It said Australian shares nudged up 0.3%, Shanghai shares gained 0.5% and South Korea's Kospi soared 1.2%. Japan's Nikkei pared earlier losses and gained 0.8%, brushing off soft domestic data.

At Bursa Malaysia, foreign funds continued to pick up blue chips, with net buying at RM142.1mil on Tuesday, pushing net foreign participations to RM1.15bil over the last seven trading days, BIMB Securities Research sai.

“This is a positive sign as investors may be expecting some goodies ahead of the upcoming Budget for 2016,” it said. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also Finance Minister, will unveil the Budget 2016 proposals on Oct 23.

MISC attracted strong attention from funds, climbing 34 sen to RM9.18 while Hong Leong Bank gained 28 sen to RM14.20 and MAHB 27 sen to RM5.53. 

Ajiya rose the most, up 38 sen to RM3.54, SAM Engineering 31 sen to RM6.54, Top Glove 17 sen to RM8.22 and OWG 14 sen to RM2.60.

Komarkcorp-WB added 13 sen to 30 sen and its shares gained 12.5 sen to 53.5 sen on news about a French company keen to buy its labelling business.

Among the plantations, PPB Group added 16 sen to RM15.86 but KL Kepong fell 12 sen to RM22.60 and Genting Plantations eight sen lower at RM10.30.

Gamuda fell 10 sen to RM4.69 on profit taking.