KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking (Maybank) led blue chips higher on Tuesday as it recouped half of the previous day's losses while Matang Bhd
was the most active counter on its trading debut on the ACE Market on Bursa Malaysia.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 4.19 points or 0.25% to 1,663.03 – recouping about a third of the losses sustained the previous day. Turnover was 1.99 billion shares valued at RM1.67bil. There were 411 gainers, 366 losers and 374 counters unchanged.
Hong Kong shares bounced back on Tuesday from the previous day's spill, but gains were capped as investors awaited British Prime Minister Theresa May's speech on Brexit later in the day and Friday's inauguration of Donald Trump as US president, Reuters reported.
Uncertainties saw investors rushing to gold as the spot price of the precious metal rose US$14.35 to US$1,217 per ounce.
The ringgit rose 0.01% to 4.4625 against the US dollar in late trade after languishing at the low levels of 4.4680. The previous day's close was 4.668.
However, the ringgit weakened against the Singapore dollar to 3.1420 from 3.1230 and slipped against the pound sterling to 5.4131 from 5.3770. It lost ground against the Euro to 4.7625 from 4.7270.
Plantation company Matang was the most active, adding one sen to 14 sen with 303.91 million shares done.
Maybank rose 12 sen to RM8.17 and added 2.08 points to the KLCI. Hong Leong Bank gained 14 sen to RM13.24, RHB Bank added eight sen to RM4.94, Public Bank four sen to RM20.06, CIMB and AmBank two sen each to RM4.74. MBSB added seven sen to RM1.12.
Bloomberg reported James Fry, chairman of LMC International as saying on Tuesday that crude oil prices will continue to set the floor for crude palm oil prices.
“In the crude market, a battle is waging between U.S shale oil and OPEC,” Fry said in slides prepared for a presentation at a conference in Kuala Lumpur.
“Palm producers have to care who wins. Price band linking vegetable oil and crude oil prices implies a US$10 a barrel rise in Brent will lift CPO prices by US$70,” he said.
Crude palm oil for third month tose RM49 to RM3,159 per tonne on export demand and the weaker ringgit. KL Kepong added 10 sen to RM24.20, Sime Darby gained four sen to RM8.49, IOI Corp three sen to RM4.49 and PPB Group was flat at RM16.24.
US light crude oil advanced 58 cents to US$52.95 and Brent gained 43 cents to US$56.29. Petronas Chemicals edged up one sen to RM7.15, Petronas Dagangan lost 30 sen to RM23.46 and Petronas Gas slumped 48 sen to RM19.90.
Telcos were mixed, Digi rose six sen to RM4.95 and Maxis five sen to RM6.07 and Telekom four sen to RM6.09 while Axiata shed eight sen to RM4.64.
Tenaga fell two sen to RM13.90, Genting Bhd nine sen to RM8.29 but Genting Malaysia inched up one sen to RM4.74.
As for consumer stocks, BAT rose 36 sen to RM45 but Nestle lost RM1.58 to RM74.12.
Magni-Tech continued to see strong interest climbing 28 sen to RM4.81 while Flobetronics ganed 21 sen to RM3.93.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.48% to 18,813.53;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.54% to 22,840.97;
CSI 300 added 0.21% to 3,326.36;
Shanghai’s Composite Index climbed 0.17% to 3,108.77;
Hang Seng China Enterprise added 0.37% to 9,702.19;
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.67% to 9,354.53;
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.37% to 2,071.87 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index shed 0.01% to 3,012.77.
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