KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group, Genting Malaysia and Maxis underpinned the FBM KLCI's firmer close on Wednesday despite a weaker broader market while the ringgit advanced against the key currencies.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 2.74 points or 0.17% to 1,632.47. Turnover was 1.04 billion shares valued at RM1.37bil. There were 283 gainers, 414 losers and 377 counters unchanged.
The ringgit firmed up against the US dollar to 4.4323 from 4.4355 and advanced against the pound sterling to 5.6043 from 5.6655. It climbed against the Singapore dollar to 3.1171 from 3.1276 and gained against the Euro to 4.7559 from 4.7813.
Most Southeast Asian markets ended higher on Wednesday tracking Asian peers with investors awaiting the upcoming European Central Bank (ECB) policy meeting for cues. The ECB is expected to announce a six-month extension to its quantitative easing programme next week, according to a majority of economists polled by Reuters.
Holding back the market was an announcement from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) that the international reserves fell US$1.9bil to US$96.4bil as at Nov 30 from US$98.3bil two weeks earlier.
“The lower international reserves position reflected the liquidity support in the foreign exchange market,” BNM said.
Axiata rose 12 sen to RM4.42 and pushed the KLCI up 1.83 points, Maxis added seven sen to RM6.07 while Digi was flat at RM4.98 and Telekom shed one sen to RM6.11. Time dotCom added 10 sen to RM7.90.
Consumer stocks were among the top losers and gainers, with BAT down 68 sen to RM44.22 and F&N 26 sen to RM23.14. However, Heinken rose 36 sen to RM16.86 and Ajinomoto 24 sen to RM13.72.
US light crude oil edged up one cent to US$50.94 but Brent fell five cents to US$53.88. Petronas Gas rose 18 sen to RM21.50, Petronas Dagangan added four sen to RM23.20 but Petronas Chemicals shed one sen to RM6.85 and SapuraKencana lost four sen to RM1.48.
As for banks, Public Bank rose two sen to RM19.64, Maybank gained one sen to RM7.89, CIMB was flat at RM4.64, HLFG lost four sen to RM14.80, AmBank was down five sen to RM4.18 and Hong Leong Bank lost 14 sen to RM13.34.
Genting Malaysia rose nine sen to RM4.68 and Genting Bhd
four sen higher at RM8.03 but Tenaga Nasional fell two sen to RM13.98.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM15 to RM3,1688 per tonne. PPB Group lost 10 sen to RM15.90, IOI Corp and Sime Darby were flat at RM4.38 and RM8.11 but KL Kepong rose four sen to RM23.84.
SM Track tumbled two sen to 2.5 sen in active trade ahead of its trading suspension on Thursday.
Stone Master tumbled 10.5 sen to 8.5 sen in active trade as it was declared a Practice Note 17 company.
However, George Kent managed to climb nine sen to RM2.93 in active trade as it regained favour with investors following its infrastructure projects.
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