KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips held on to their gains at the midday break on Monday, tracking the key Asian markets, as gains in the Maxis and IOI Corp boosted the FBM KLCI while the ringgit advanced.
At midday, the KLCI was up 8.33 points or 0.51% to 1,652.87. Turnover was 836.63 million shares valued at RM688.91mil. There were 359 gainers, 279 losers and 326 counters unchanged.
Southeast Asian stock markets rose on Monday, in line with Asian shares, as upbeat US jobs data mitigated concerns about the health of the world's largest economy. Indonesian stocks led the gains, climbing to their highest since June 2015, Reuters reported.
The ringgit firmed up against some key currencies, advancing to 3.9802 to the US dollar from 4.0345 the previous close, it was at 5.1587 to the pound sterling from 5.2180 and advanced against the Singapore dollar to 2.9611 from 2.9922 while against the Euro it was at 4.3994 from 4.4382.
Oil fell on Monday over signs that US shale drillers have adapted to lower prices and on renewed indications of economic weakness in Asia, Reuters reported. US light crude oil fell 37 cents to US$45.04 and Brent 33 cents lower at US$46.43.
However, Petronas Gas and Petronas Dagangan gained 20 sen to RM22.40 and RM23.64 while Petronas Chemicals gained three sen to RM6.59. SapuraKencana inched up one sen to RM1.40 and Wah Seong added 3.5 sen to 71 sen.
BAT was the top gainer, up 66 sen to RM55.08 while Carlsberg added 32 sen to RM14.52 and Nestle 30 sen to RM77 with 100 shares done. However, Dutch Lady
fell RM1.30 to RM60 on some profit taking.
Maxis rose 15 sen to RM6.08 and pushed theKLCI up 1,87 points, Digi added one sen to $,76, Telekom and Axiata fell one sen each to RM6.77 and RM5.49.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery eased RM3 to RM2,238 per tonne. IOI Corp rose 11 sen to RM4.39 and added 1.18 points to the KLCI. PPB Group added 24 sen to RM16.46, KL Kepong 10 sen to RM23.30 and Sime Darby six sen RM7.47.
Genting Bhd added 15 sen to RM8.12 but Genting Malaysi shed one sen to RM4.28. Tenaga advanced four senb to RM14.14.
Among the banks, Hong Leong Bank rose eight sen to RM13.26, Public Bank added two sen to RM19.36, Maybank fell three sen to RM8.17, CIMB was flat at RM4.39. HLFG fell 12 sen to RM15.18.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 3.75% to 15,674.24;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 1.64% to 20,902.37;
CSI 300 rose 1.05% to 3,225.77;
Shanghai’s Composite Index gained 0.91% to 3,015.27;
Shenzhen Composite gained 0.41% to 2,020.58;
Hang Seng China Enterprise jumped 2.19% to 8,721.92;
Taiwan’s Taiex added 1.56% to 8,775.95;
South Korea’s Kospi added 1.21% to 1,986.79; and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.94% to 2,873.66.
Spot gold rose 77 cents to US$1,367.10.
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