KUALA LUMPUR: Maybank staged a mild recovery at midday on Wednesday after the heavy selling the previous day while Axiata and Genting Bhd
advanced, enabling the FBM KLCI to chalk up mild gains after several days of losses.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was up 1.35 points or 0.08% to 1,627.46. Turnover was 787.92 million shares valued at RM583.55mil. There were 238 gainers, 362 losers and 310 unchanged.
Reuters reported Southeast Asian stock markets were flat to slightly higher on Wednesday after index provider MSCI turned its back on Chinese A-shares, easing some market concerns, but worries continued over Britain's potential departure from the European Union.
US index provider MSCI Inc on Tuesday declined to add domestic Chinese stocks to one of its key benchmarks, delivering a blow to Chinese policymakers hoping to broaden the appeal of their currency.
The ringgit recovered to firm up against some major currencies. The ringgit was at 4.1020 to the US dollar from 4.1070 the previous day, it gained against the pound sterling to 5.7995 from 5.8066; it advanced against the Singapore dollar to 3.0256 from 3.0292 and gained against the Euro to 4.5980 from 4.6145.
Maybank rose seven sen to RM8.07 and added 1.17 points to the KLCI. CIMB edged up one sen to RM4.37, Hong Leong Bank and AmBank were flat at RM13 and RM4.35 while Public Bank shed four sen to RM19.14.
Genting Bhd added 11 sen to RM8.15 but Genting Malaysia lost three sen to RM4.31. MISC edged up one sen to RM7.49 and IHH Healthcare gained three sen to RM6.42.
July crude palm oil export tax raised to 6%, says Malaysian Palm Oil Board. The gazetted price for CPO for July was RM2,730 a tonne. However, CPO for third month delivery fell RM31 to RM2,450 at noon, the lowest since Jan 29.
Sime Darby was flat at RM7.50, IOI Corp gained two sen to RM4.31, KL Kepong fell four sen to RM23 and PPB Group six sen lower at RM16.02.
As for telcos, Axiata added five sen to RM5.60, Digi added four sen to RM8.15, Telekom three sen to RM6.71 but Maxis shed two sen to RM5.66.
Huat Lai was the top gainer, up 29 sen to RM4.40, Uli Corp 16 sen to RM6.28 and Lii Hen11 sen to RM3.27.
Among the consumer stocks, Dutch Lady rose RM1 to RM57.80 but BAT fell RM1.06 to RM50.14, Berjaya Food lost 10 sen to RM1.70.
US light crude oil fell 68 cents to US$47.81 and Brent lost 68 cents to US$49.15.
As for the oil and gas stocks, Bumi Armada was flat at 71 sen while Petronas Gas fell 12 sen to RM21.44 and Petronas Dagangan lost 10 sen to RM23.32 and Petronas Chemicals shed four sen to RM6.44.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.51% to 15,940.65;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.46% to 20,480.36;
CSI 300 added 1.42% to 3,119.76;
Shanghai’s Composite Index gained 1.53% to 2,885.78;
Shenzhen Composite added 0.48% to 8,624.67;
Hang Seng China Enterprise gained 0.48% to 8,624.67;
Taiwan’s Taiex gaine d0.22% to 8,594.36;
South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.04% to 1,971.27 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.03% to 2,769.17.
Spot gold fell 33 cents to US$1,285.39.
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