KUALA LUMPUR: Maxis Bhd
, Genting Malaysia and Petronas Gas led the FBM KLCI higher at the close on Monday while crude palm oil futures rallied and the ringgit firmed up against the US dollar.
However, holding back the advance was Telekom Malaysia on concerns about the impact of the earnings from the 2017 Budget announced last Friday and its broadband plans for Unifi customers.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 7.78 points to 1,677.76. Turnover was 1.64 billion shares valued at RM1.69bil. There were 378 gainers, 407 losers and 376 counters unchanged.
The ringgit rose against the US dollar to 4.1757 from 4.1790 and broke past the crucial 3.0 level against the Singapore dollar at 2.999 from 3.0031. It was firmer against the pound sterling to 5.1072 from 5.1196 and gained against the Euro to 4.5455 from 4.5551.
Hong Kong stocks firmed on Monday, led by buoyant mainland markets, but gains were capped by concerns over continued yuan weakness and the possibility of a US rate hike in December, Reuters reported.
Oil prices came under pressure on Monday as Iraq said it wanted to be exempt from an OPEC deal to cut production, though losses were capped by Iran saying it would encourage other members to join an output freeze, Reuters reported.
Brent crude futures were up 6 cents at US$51.84 a barrel by 0913 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 5 cents at US$50.80.
Petronas Gas rose 36 sen to RM22.10, Petronas Chemicals was flat at RM6.98 and Petronas Dagangan lost eight sen to RM23.30. However, SapuraKencana shed one sen to RM1.64.
Consumer stocks were among the top gainers with BAT up 44 sen to RM50.24, Dutch Lady rose 38 sen to RM60.18, Heineken added 26 sen to RM17.08 but Carlsberg fell 24 sen to RM14.76 and F&N was down 16 sen to RM24.26.
Among the telcos, Maxis rose 20 sen to RM6.20 and pushed the KLCI up 2.55 points, Digi gained six sen to RM5.01 while Axiata added two sen to RM5.13. However, Telekom lost 13 sen to RM6.58 and erased 0.83 of a point from the KLCI.
Genting Malaysia rose 14 sen to RM4.85, MISC rose 11 sen to RM7.61 and Tenaga edged up two sen to RM14.34.
Crude palm for third month delivery rallied RM93 to RM2,817 – the highest since March 2014 – on expectations that its competitor, soybean output in the US would be affected by the recent hurricane Matthew in North Carolina.
Sime Darby added four sen to RM8.02 but KL Kepong fell eight sen to RM24.28 on profit taking, PPB Group shed two sen to RM16.06 and IOI Corp was down one sen to RM4.50.
BCM Alliance, which made its debut on the Ace Market, ended the day up 2.5 sen to 21.5 sen with 203.41 million shares done.
RHB Bank rose 13 sen to RM4.82, Maybank and CIMB Group added four sen each to RM7.73 and RM5.08, Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank gained two sen each to RMRM19.82 and RM13.30.
Win a prize this Mother's Day by subscribing to our annual plan now! T&C applies.
