KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips crossed the crucial 1,750 level in intra-morning trade on Thursday on fund buying of banks and Bursa Malaysia especially following a positive outlook from Credit-Suisse Research but profit taking saw the FBM KLCI giving up half of the gains.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was up 10.63 points or 0.61% to 1,747.77. Turnover was 2.31 billion shares valued at RM1.76bil. There were 496 gainers, 331 losers and 377 counters unchanged.
Credit-Suisse Research believes the 45-month 34% US dollar underperformance of Malaysian equities (20% in local currency terms) was warranted but has now reached an end game. It said it had now turned constructive on Malaysia.
Foreign funds have been net buyers on Bursa over the week, with net buying surging to RM616mil on Thursday, based on stock market data.
On the external front, Reuters reported Hong Kong's benchmark index hit a 19-month high on Friday, and is on track for its best week in six months, as risk sentiment improves after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its tightening outlook.
The Hang Seng index rose to an intraday high of 24,385.81, the highest since August 2015. By the lunch break, the index was up 0.3% to 24,354.89.
In mainland China, shares pulled back as investors await fresh evidence of a sustainable recovery in the world's second largest economy, while continuing to buy relatively cheap Hong Kong plays via the Connect schemes, Reuters reported.
China's blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.2% to 3,474.27 while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2% to 3,261.16.
Credit-Suisse Research said the ringgit appears attractive at current levels after significant devaluation The ringgit has undergone a significant 33% devaluation in nominal terms versus the US dollar since May 2013.
At midday, the ringgit weakened against the main currencies. It slipped against the US dollar to 4.4404 from 4.4383 the previous day, weakened against the pound sterling to 5.4867 from 5.4403; fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.1652 from 3.1594 while against the Euro, it was lower at 4.7820 from 4.7539.
Maybank rose 11 sen to RM8.96 and pushed the KLCI up 1.86 points, Public Bank gained 18 sen to RM20.06 and nudged the index up 1.15 points, CIMB advanced 10 sen to RM5.69 and Hong Leong Bank four sen higher at RM13.64. LPI, which is a major shareholder in Public Bank, rose 12 sen to RM17.06.
Bursa Malaysia, which will benefit from the strong trading activity, rose 31 sen to RM9.65. Aeon Credit
rose 20 sen to RM16.
Among the consumer stocks, Nestle added 20 sen to RM76.82, BAT gained 18 sen to RM47.88 and Heineken 12 sen to RM17.70.
Dataprep jumped 11 sen to 38 sen and it was the most active with 82.98 million shares done.
Crude palm oil for this month delivery fell RM10 to RM2,786 per tonne. Sime Darby added seven sen to RM9.37, PPB Group six sen higher at RM16.84 and KL Kepong rose four sen to RM24.74 but IOI Corp shed one sen to RM4.69.
US light crude oil rose 11 cents to US$48.86 and Brent gained five cents to US$51.79. Petronas Chemicals rose 12 sen to RM7.40, Petronas Dagangan eight sen higher at RM23.70 but Petronas Gas shed six sen to RM19.74.
IHH Healthcare fell eight sen to RM5.99 while also down eight sen was Press Metal to RM2.44 on profit taking. Berjaya Food was down seven sen to RM1.81.
Rohas-Tecnic fell 20.5 sen to 91.5 sen with 5.19 million shares done on its trading debut after taking over Tecnic Group. Analaysts said those who received the new shares could have been selling them. Its pai-dup had increased from 40 million shares to 400 million shares after the corporate exercise.
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