KUALA LUMPUR: DRB-Hicom rebounded from the recent seven year low on Tuesday after it announced the corporate exercise while blue chips extended their gains for the second day on fund buying of telcos, Petronas stocks and selected plantations.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 11.63 points or 0.71% to 1,66.62. Turnover was 1.94 billion shares valued at RM2.12bil. There were 551 gainers, 262 losers and 336 counters unchanged.
After market close, Bank Negara Malaysia announded that its reserves as of May 31 were US$97.3bil, up US$100mil from May 13. The central banks said the reserves were sufficient to finance 8 months of retained imports.
The ringgit firmed up against the US dollar, Singapore dollar and the euro but slipped against the British pound. It was at 4.0557 to the greenback from 4.0985, advanced to 2.9966 against the Singapore dollar from 3.0154 and higher at 4.6080 against the euro from 4.6549. However, it slipped to 5.9195 against the pound from 5.9153.
Most key Asian markets closed higher as the US Federal Reserve was highly unlikely to raise interest rates in June after the weaker-than-expected May jobs report.
Reuters reported that cautious comments from the US Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen about the timing of a possible interest rate rise drove emerging stocks to five-week highs on Tuesday while some currencies traded at multi-week highs.
MSCI's emerging market index jumped 1.5%, its biggest daily gain since mid-April, with bourses from Asia to Eastern Europe and Africa rallying after Yellen gave an upbeat assessment of the U.S. economy and said interest rate rises were coming but gave little sense of when.
At Bursa Malaysia, DRB-Hicom jumped 17 sen to RM1.03 and its call warrants, DRB-Hicom C-19 jumped 12 sen to 15.5 sen -- the highest since April 20 -- with 38.90 million units traded.
After market close, the diverisfied group said Proton Holdings had completed the issuance of up to 1.25 billion preference shares to MoF owned GovCo Holdings.
US light crude oil rebounded to add 26 cents to US$49.95 and Brent advanced 32 cents to US$50.87.
Petronas Gas rose 32 sen to RM21.78, Petronas Chemicals 12 sen to RM1.64 and Petronas Dagangan added four sen to RM23.80. Bumi Armada
rose three sen to 71 sen and Sumatec was flat at 11 sen in very active trade.
AirAsia added five sen to RM2.60 and AirAsia X edged up one sen to 39.5 sen.CIMB Research remained optimistic about AirAsia's prospects.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM18 to RM2,642 on profit taking and as the ringgit firmed up against the major currencies.
United Plantations rose 16 sen to RM26.40 with 1,000 shares done. IOI Corp gained 13 sen to RM4.40, KL Kepong 12 sen to RM23.38, PPB Group eight sen to RM16.28 and Sime Darby seven sen to RM7.66.
Digi was the biggest mover among the KLCI stocks, adding 14 sen to RM4.70 and pushing the KLCI up 1.86 points, Axiata 11 sen to RM5.67 while Maxis added 10 sen to RM5.69 but Telekom slipped one sen to RM6.64
Among the consumer stocks, F&N was the top gainer, up 50 sen to RM24.50, Dutch Lady added 44 sen to RM56.60 and BAT 32 sen higher at RM51.80.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.58% to 16,675.45;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 1.42% to 21,328.24;
CSI 300 slipped 0.05% to 3,177.05;
Shanghai’s Composite Index rose 0.07% to 2,936.04;
Shenzhen Composite gained 0.25% to 1,924.88;
Hang Seng China Enterprise jumped 1.57% to 9,004.30;
Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.96% to 8,679.90;
South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.3% to 2,011.63; and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.59% to 2,848.09.
Spot gold fell US$4.78 to US$1,240.56.
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