KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of Maybank and CIMB helped lift the FBM KLCI more than nine points at midday on Monday, riding on the firmer key Asian markets as worries about tBrexit abated while crude oil prices advanced and the ringgit firmed up against the US dollar.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was up 9.18 points or 0.57% to 1,633.36. Turnover was 561.87 million shares valued at RM519.97mil. There were 273 gainers, 307 losers and 326 counters unchanged.
China stocks dipped on Monday morning as sentiment was subdued amid underlying concerns of yuan depreciation and a fresh regulatory crackdown on speculative trading, Reuters reported.
But Hong Kong shares rose over 1%, tracking rebounds in Asian markets as some fears that Britain would vote to leave the European Union abated. Both China's blue-chip CSI300 index and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2%, to 3,105.71 and 2,880.08, respectively.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index added 1.1%, to 20,388.49, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 1.0%, to 8,574.22.
The ringgit firmed up against the US dollar to 4.0745 from 4.1007 last Friday and rose against the Singapore dollar to 3.0319 from 3.0372.
It weakened against the resurgent pound to 5.9443 from 5.8632 and slipped against the Euro to 4.6243 from 4.6163.
At Bursa, MIDF Equities Research said last week’s foreign withdrawal further reduced the cumulative net foreign inflow thus far this year into Bursa to an estimated +RM100.6mil, down significantly from prior week +RM1.11bil.
Maybank rose nine sen to RM8.18 and added 1.52 points to the KLCI while CIMB added seven sen to RM4.31 and gave the index a 1.03 point boost. AmBank added five sen to RM4.41 and Public Bank four sen to RM19.18 but Hong Leong Bank lost 14 sen to RM13.22.
Crude oil prices rose with US light crude up 53 cents to US$48.51 and Brent added 48 cents to US$49.65. Petronas Gas rose 26 sen to RM21.70, Petronas Chemicals six sen to RM6.41 and Petronas Dagangan four sen to RM23.60.
SapuraKencana fell three sen to RM1.38, near its all-time low of RM1.36.
BAT was the top gainer, up 48 sen to RM50.78 in rising volume. DKSH added 18 sen to RM4 while
PJ Development and KLCC rose 11 sen each to RM1.39 and RM7.49.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM20 to US$2,430 per tonne. FGV-C11 rose 0.5 sen to 9.5 sen and the shares added five sen to RM1.57. PPB Group and Sime Darby added six sen each to RM7.57 and RM13.64, IOI Corp rose four seven to RM4.35 but KL Kepong fell eight sen to RM23.08.
Tenaga was flat at RM13.98, UMW lost eight sen to RM5.45.
Gold futures tumbled US$17.60 to US$1,281.05.
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