KUALA LUMPUR: Mild buying of Genting Bhd
, Genting Malaysia and Maybank enabledrp the FBM KLCI to eke out marginal gains at the close of trade on Tuesday while key Asian markets were mixed ahead of several key events this week.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 0.55 of a point or 0.03% to 1,722.47. Turnover was 3.92 billion shares valued at RM3.25bil. There were 444 gainers, 473 losers and 363 counters unchanged.
Reuters reported Hong Kong's main index barely moved on Tuesday, as many investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of a series of global "risk events" this week.
They are awaiting the outcome of the Federal Reserve's rate-setting meeting on March 14-15, policy decisions by the Bank of England and Bank of Japan, and also keeping an eye on the Dutch general election and shaky oil prices, it said.
The ringgit slipped against the US dollar, down 0.13% to 4.4525 in late spike by the greenback from the previous day's close of 4.4465.
However it was firmer against the other key currencies, rising 0.54% against the pound stering at 5.4026 from 5.4319, gaining 0.13% against the Singapore dollar at 3.1446 from 3.1488 and edging up 0.19% against the Euro to 4.7374 from 4.7466.
Genting Bhd rose 17 sen to RM9.60 and pushed the KLCI up 1.08 points while Genting Malaysia added 10 sen to RM5.35 and nudged the index one point. IHH Healthcare rose three sen to RM5.87 and Tenaga fell four sen to RM13.74.
IW City continued to dominate market trading over the past three days, spurred by the merger plan. It rose 21 sen to RM2.80 with 135.6 million shares done. It snapped out of its earlier profit taking and extended its rally after two straight days of hitting limit-up.
Maybank added five sen to RM8.85, Hong Leong Bank four sen to RM13.52, CIMB two sen to RM5.42, RHB Bank was flat at RM5.18, Public Bank and AmBank shed two sen each to RM19.84 and RM4.85.
US light crude oil inched up six cents to US$48.46 and Brent added four cents to US$51.39. Petronas Gas added six sen to RM19.78 but Petronas Dagangan lost 38 sen to RM23.92, Petronas Chemicals shed one sen to RM7.30.
Shell Refining regained its oomph to add 16 sen to RM3.66 while Petron added seven sen to RM5.82. Bumi Armada shed 0.5 sen to 69.5 sen and SapuraKencana three sen to RM1.82.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM20 to RM2,743 per tonne. KL Kepong rose four sen to RM24.50, IOI Corp eked out a one sen gain to RM4.69 while Sime and PPB Grop were flat at RM9.13 and RM16.70.
As for telcos, Axiata fell five sen to RM4.67 and erased 0.76 of a point, Digi shed one sen to RM5.13 while Maxis and Telekom were flat at RM6.43 and RM6.53.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.12% to 19,609.50;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shed 0.01% to 23,827.95;
CSI 300 dipped 0.04% to 3,456.69;
Shanghai’s Composite Index rose 0.07% to 3,239.33;
Hang Seng China Enterprise gained 0.55% to 10,315.23
Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.48% to 9,744.21;
South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.76% to 2,133.78 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 0.12% to 3,143.40.
Spot gold fell 72 cents to US$1,203.58.
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