KUALA LUMPUR: Penny stocks saw very active trade with Sumatec, Hovid and IFCA MSC accounting more than 300 million shares while the FBM KLCI managed to close higher, supported by gains in Maxis, Genting and Hap Seng.
Stock market data showed local institutions were net buyers at RM64.89mil while retail investors were net sellers at RM18.85mil. Foreign funds were also net sellers at RM46.04mil.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 4.16 points or 0.25% to 1,672.05. Turnover was 2.68 billion shares valued at RM2.11bil – the highest in recent months. There were 414 gainers, 368 losers and 369 counters unchanged.
The ringgit rose against the US dollar to 4.4755 from 4.4770 the previous day and climbed against the pound sterling to 5.4255 from 5.4528.
However, it dipped against the Singapore dollar to 3.1190 from 3.1069 and weakened against the Euro to 4.7456 from 4.7224.
The market saw volatile trading with the KLCI falling into the red in late trade before some fund support pushed it back into the positive zone.
Sumatec fell one sen to 8.5 sen with 119.4 million units done. Hovid lost 4.5 sen to 30 sen after the Health Ministry's move to repeal the manufacturing licences for both Hovid’s facilities in Perak.
IFCA MSC jumped nine sen to 35 sen with 110 million shares done on rising interest.
HLT Global, which made its debut on the ACE Market, rose 9.5 sen to 54.5 sen.
Maxis rose 17 sen to RM6.18 and pushed the KLCI up 2.17 points while Telekom added one sen to RM6.16 and Digi was flat at RM4.90 and Axiata shed one sen to RM4.74.
Genting Bhd
rose 11 sen to RM8.21 and Genting Malaysia added 10 sen to RM4.85. Hap Seng added 15 sen to RM9.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM19 to RM3,131 per tonne. PPB Group rose 30 sen to RM16.38, Chin Tek added 15 sen to RM7.85 while Sime Darby, IOI Corp and KL Kepong were flat at RM8.45, RM4.50 and RM4.90 respectively.
Oil edged up on Tuesday on hopes that some planned output cuts agreed by OPEC and other producers would be implemented, recovering some ground from losses the previous day over doubts the reductions would rebalance an oversupplied market, Reuters reported.
US light crude oil rose 24 cents to US$52.20 and Brent added 19 cents to US$55.13.
Petronas Gas fell 42 sen to RM20.98 on profit taking and erased 1.4 points from the KLCI, Petronas Chemicals was down three sen to RM7.17 but Petronas Dagangan added two sen to RM23.82.
Among the consumer stocks, BAT held on to its gains, up 86 sen to RM46.28 while Ajinomotor gained 16 sen to RM13.76.
Insurer LPI rose 24 sen to RM17.22 while RHB Bank added seven sen to RM4.93. CIMB and AmBank added four sen each to RM4.80 and RM4.45 while Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank ended two sen higher at RM20.02 and RM13.30. Also up two sen was Maybank to RM8.28.
Trading volume was also see growing in funiture maker Latitude Tree which put on 19 sen to RM5.39.
Tenaga fell 12 sen to RM13.80 and erased 1.15 points from the KLCI on profit taking. JP Morgan lowered the power giant to Neutral with a target price of RM15.
Shell Refining's irrational run-up halted and it closed down 12 sen to RM2.49 as the takeover offer had been fixed at RM1.92.
Hong Kong stocks hit a one-month high on Tuesday as Chinese commodity prices rallied, offsetting pressure from profit taking in some state-owned enterprises (SOEs) which rose last week on restructuring hopes.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.79% to 19,301.44;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.83% to 22,744.85;
CSI 300 lost 0.17% to 3,358.27;
Shanghai’s Composite Index fell 0.3% to 3,161.67;
Hang Seng China Enterprise rose 0.64% to 9,664.19;
Taiwan’s Taiex edged up 0.08% to 9,349.64;
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.18% to 2.045.12 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.64% to 3,000.76.
Spot gold rose US$2.25 to US$1,183.35.
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