KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips rebounded towards the close of trade on Wednesday on fund buying of Petronas Chemicals, Axiata and Genting Bhd
as crude oil prices rose but crude palm oil (CPO) futures fell below the RM2,600 level.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 8.24 points or 0.47% to 1,744.08. It was the second best performer among the key Asian markets after Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index.
Turnover was heavy with 4.02 billion shares traded valued at RM2.40bil. There were 427 gainers, 506 losers and 349 counters unchanged.
Foreign funds continued to be net buyers but the buying had declined to RM19.98mil while local institutions were net sellers at RM13.05mil and local institutions at RM6.83mil.
Hong Kong stocks broke a four-day losing streak on Wednesday as investors turned their attention to shares which could benefit from Beijing's plan to more strongly integrate the economies of southern China, Hong Kong and Macau.
The ringgit firmed up against the US dollar but weakened against the other currencies. The local unit rose to 4.4288 against the greenback from 4.4335 the previous day.
However, the ringgit fell 0.61% against the pound sterling to 5.5398 from 5.5059; slipped to 3.1618 against the Singapore dollar from 3.1553 and was weaker against the euro at 4.7039 from 4.6988.
Brent oil extended gains into an eighth straight session on Wednesday, having recovered nearly all last month's losses, after Saudi Arabia was said to be pushing its fellow OPEC members and some rivals to prolong supply cuts beyond June, Reuters reported. US light crude oil rose 28 cents to US$53.68 and Brent added 38 cents to US$56.59.
Petronas Chemicals rose 17 sen to RM7.80 and powered the KLCI up 2.3 points. Petronas Dagangan added four sen to RM24.08 and Petronas Gas was flat RM19.68. Petron added 24 sen to RM6.50.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM25 to RM2,587 per tonne on rising stockpile. Heavyweight Sime Darby lost two sen to RM9.30, IOI Corp was flat RM4.50, KL Kepong added two sen to RM24.48 and PPB Group advanced 12 sen to RM16.66.
Axiata rose 11 sen to RM5.19 and added 1.67 points to the KLCI, Maxis and Telekom added four sen each to RM6.41 and RM6.39 while Digi inched up one sen to RM5.10.
Genting Bhd perked up, advancing 19 sen to RM9.51 and pushing the index up 1.2 points, Genting Malaysia rose six sen to RM5.55, MISC 11 sen higher at RM7.43 and Tenaga was flat at RM13.72.
HCK Capital surged to an all-time high of RM6.60 before ending the day at RM6.20, with a hefty gain of RM1.05. The surge did not go unnoticed and Bursa Securities queried the company about the unusual market activity.
Among the banks, AmBank rose four sen to RM4.89, CIMB one sen to RM5.47, Maybank and Hong Leong Bank were flat at RM8.98 and RM13.70 while Public Bank shed two sen to RM19.96 and RHB Bank five sen lower at RM5.14.
As for consumer stocks, Nestle was the top gainer, up RM1.98 to RM81.98, BAT 78 sen higher at RM46.90 but Ajinomoto ;pst 54 sen to RM17.20.
Recent gainers KESM, JHM and Superlon fell on profit taking. KESM was down 40 sen to RM12.08, JHM 13 sen lower at RM3.90 and Superlon 12 sen down at RM3.47.
MUI Industries, which chalked up gains on Tuesday, fell three sen to 25 sen in active trade.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.04% to 18,552.61;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.93% to 24,313.50;
CSI 300 lost 0.21% to 3,509.65;
Shanghai’s Composite Index lost 0.46% to 3,273.83;
Hang Seng China Enterprise rose 0.42% to 10,208.31;
Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.15% to 9,817.68;
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.24% to 2,128.91 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.35% to 3,186.01.
Spot gold fell US$1.32 to US$1,273.54.
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