KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Chemicals and Maxis underpinned the FBM KLCI's slim gains at midday on Wednesday while the broader market was weaker, in line with the cautious key Asian markets fdue to rising geopoliticals risks.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was up 1.61 points to 1,737.45. Turnover was 2.11 billion shares valued at RM810.47mil. The broader market was weaker with decliners beating advancers three to two or 445 losers to 332 gainers while 379 counters were unchanged.
The US dollar fell broadly on Tuesday, nearly touching a five-month low against the Japanese yen, as geopolitical risk and declining US Treasury yields pushed traders out of the greenback, Reuters reported.
The ringgit rose against the US dollar to 4.4300 from 4.4335 and was up against the euro at 4.6973 from 4.6988. However, it slipped against the pound sterling to 5.5308 from 5.5059 and weakened against the Singapore unit to 3.1616 from 3.1553.
Oil prices rose on Wednesday, putting crude futures on track for their longest streak of gains since August 2016, as Saudi Arabia was reported to be lobbying OPEC and other producers to extend a production cut beyond the first half of 2017,.
US light crude rose nine cents to US$53.49 and Brent added 12 cents US$56.35.
Petronas Chemicals rose five sen to RM7.68 and added 0.65 of a point to the KLCI while Petronas Dagangan inched up four sen each to RM24.08 but Petronas Gas fell four sen to RM19.64. Petron Malaysia
added 17 sen to RM6.43.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM34 to RM2,578 per tonne – the lowest since Oct 10, 2016 on rising supplies.
Among the plantations, PPB Group rose 12 sen to RM16.66, KL Kepong was flat at RM24.46, IOI Corp shed one sen to RM6.03 and Sime Darby lost four sen to RM9.28.
As for banks, AmBank rose six sen to RM4.91, Hong Leong Bank up four sen to RM13.74, CIMB and Maybank flat at RM5.46 and RM8.98 while Public Bank lost four sen to RM19.94 and RHB Bank two sen to RM5.17.
Bursa, which benefits from the surge in trading, added 14 sen to RM9.69.
BAT was the top gainer, up 68 sen to RM46.80 while Cocoland added 11 sen to RM2.72,.
MUI Industries fell two sen to 26 sen with 158.75 million shares done. Hubline and HWGB were flat at 8.5 sen and seven sen while Sersol added four sen to 27 sen.
Profit taking saw KESM shedding 12 sen to RM12.36 in thin trade while Aeon Credit fell 10 sen to RM15.56 and Superlon was down nine sen to RM3.50. Recent star performer JHM lost eight sen to RM3.95.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.2% to 18,552.15;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.14%to 24,044.35;
CSI 300 slipped 0.06% to 3,514.85;
Shanghai’s Composite Index lost 0.34% to 3,277.90;
Hang Seng China Enterprise lost 0.47% to 10,118.58;
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.21% to 9,812.20;
South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.06% to 2,125.08;
Singapore’s Straits Times Index was down 0.21% to 3,171.09.
Spot gold added 80 cents to US$1,275.67.
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