Matang in focus as blue chips recover early Tuesday

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips recovered slightly early Tuesday from the previous day's decline which was spurred by foreign selling while Matang Bhd was in focus on its first trading day.

At 9.52am, the KLCI was up 2.24 points or 0.14% to 1,661.08 after falling 13 points the previous day. 

Turnover was 473.29 million shares valued at RM148.37mil. There were 197 gainers, 211 losers and 261 counters unchanged.

The ringgit was unchanged against the US dollar at 4.4640.

Oil markets were mixed, supported by Saudi Arabia saying it would strictly adhere to a commitment to cut output, but held back by scepticism in financial markets about the outlook for crude prices, Reuters reported.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were trading up 16 cents at US$52.53 per barrel at 0136 GMT. Brent crude futures fell nine cents to US$55.77 a barrel.

At Bursa Malaysia, oil palm plantation company Matang rose 1.5 sen to 14.5 sen on its trading debut on the ACE MArket. It was among the most active counter with 226.61 million shares done.

Hong Leong Industries rose 17 sen to RM9.65 while Hong Leong Bank added 16 sen to RM13.26 and Magni-Tech gained 12 sen to RM4.65.

Maybank rose nine sen to RM8.14 and MISC seven sen higer at RM7.48 while Maxis climbed six sen to RM6.08.

Only World Group recouped part of Monday's losses which were triggered by the temporary closure of its 14 outlets in First World Hotel, Genting Highlands from Feb 12. It rose eight sen to RM2.09.

Petronas Gas fell 20 sen to RM20.18, Genting Bhd 11 sen lower at RM8.27, Apex Healthcare eight sen to RM4.80 and PPB Group eight sen down at RM16.16.