KUALA LUMPUR: Late fund buying pushed the FBM KLCI to a near one-month high, boosted by gaing in Axiata Group, AmBank and Astro
as the ringgit held on its gains against the US dollar.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 11.28 points or 0.69% to 1,643.75 as it jumped 5.5 points within the last six minutes before close. This was the highest since Nov 10 when the market came under pressure following Donald Trump's election as the president of the US the previous day.
Turnover improved slightly to 1.09 billion shares valued at RM1.56bil. The broader market was firmer with advancers beating decliners four to three or 390 gainers to 313 losers while 379 counters were unchanged.
The ringgit rose 0.23% to 4.4222 to the US dollar from 4.4323 the previous day. But the local unit slipped against the pound sterling to 5.6046 from 5.6043 while it fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.1224 from 3.1171. It also was weaker against the Euro to 4.7722 from 4.7559.
World shares climbed to a near three-month high on Thursday as encouraging China data and a record high Wall Street kept traders upbeat ahead of an expected extension of the European Central Bank's already generous stimulus programme, Reuters said.
Asia had shares hustled to one-month highs after Wall Street strode to another record and European stocks made it four gains on the bounce and the euro neared month highs as the prospect of ECB support loomed.
At Bursa Malaysia, Axiata extended its winning streak again, surging 22 sen to RM4.64 and propelled the KLCI up 3.58 points. Astro added 13 sen to RM2.78 and nudged the index up 1.15 points.
Digi rose one sen to RM4.99, Telekom was flat at RM6.11 while Maxis shed two sen to RM6.05.
Reuters also reported oil prices steadied around US$50 a barrel on Thursday, close to the week's lows, on doubts proposed OPEC production cuts would be sufficient to balance the market, although a weaker dollar supported sentiment. US light crude rose 16 cents to US$49.93 and Brent advanced 21 cents to US$53.21.
Petronas Dagangan added 26 sen to RM23.46 and Petronas Chemicals gained five sen to RM6.90 but Petronas Gas fell 22 sen to RM21.28 and erased 0.74 of a point.
Among the banks, AmBank jumped 27 sen to RM4.45, the best in many months and boosted the KLCI by 1.38 points. HLFG added 40 sen to RM15.20, RHB Bank three sen to RM4.83, Maybank one sen higher at RM7.90. CIMB and Hong Leong Bank were flat at RM4.64 and RM13.34 while Public Bank shed two sen to RM19.62.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM29 to RM3,113 per tonne. Analysts said efficient planters' cost of production was about RM1,200 per tonne and least efficient players about RM1,400 per tonne but weighing on the private sectors are heavy taxes including the windfall profit tax.
KL Kepong rose 22 sen to RM24.06, PPB Group 10 sen to RM16, Sime Darby added three sen to RM8.14 and IOI Corp two sen to RM4.40.
BAT ended up 72 sen to RM44.98 and Carlsberg gained 22 se to RM14.14 but Ajinomoto lost 18 sen to RM13.60 and Dutch Lady 12 sen to RM55.38.
Tenaga Nasional rose two sen to RM14, MISC added four sen to RM7.33 while Genting Malaysia advanced three sen to RM4.71 and Genting Bhd was up two sen to RM8.05.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 1.45% to 18,765.47;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.27% to 22,861.84;
CSI 300 fell 0.16% to 3,470.14;
Shanghai’s Composite Index fell 0.21% to 3,215.37;
Hang Seng China Enterprise rose 0.68% to 9,896,82;
Taiwan’s Taiex rose 1.21% to 9,375.86;
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.97% to 2,031.07 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.03% to 2,958. 86.
Spot gold rose US$1.48 to US$1,175.47.
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