KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas stocks and Genting Bhd
chalked up firm gains on Thursday, enabling the FBM KLCI to close nearly nine points higher, riding on the rebound in crude oil prices while economists expected stronger first quarter GDP growth.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 8.83 points or 0.5% to 1,775.39. Turnover was 3.55 billion shares valued at RM3.47bil. Advancers led decliners 560 to 376 while 404 counters were unchanged.
Foreign funds were net buyers at RM272.4mil while local institutions were net sellers at RM233.3mil and retailers took profit and were net sellers at RM39.1mil.
Most key Asian markets ended the day on a firm note. China stocks reversed earlier losses to end higher on Thursday, with sentiment helped by expectations that the central bank will inject funds via its medium-term lending facility on Friday, Reuters reported.
Aiding the firmer investor sentiment on Bursa was the March industrial production index (IPI) data, which expanded 4.6% in March from a year ago, boosted by the manufacturing sector, but the growth was slower than Bloomberg's survey of a 4.8% increase.
Nomura Global Markets Research said the March output was above its forecast of 3.5%.
“This implies a pick-up from January-February IPI growth of 4.1% (combined to remove the lunar new year effect). Nonetheless, official seasonally adjusted data still show a 0.7% on-month decline in March, following the 2.1% expansion in February.
“Overall, we estimate Q1 GDP growth is tracking at 5.2% on-year, a further pick-up from 4.5% in Q4 2016,” said Nomura Research.
The ringgit rose 0.03% against the US dollar to 4.3460 from the previous close of 4.3472 and gained 0.4% to the pound sterling at 5.6110 from 5.6333. However, it eased 0.11% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0854 from 3.0820 and shed 0.02% versus the euro at 4.7268 from 4.7259.
US light crude oil and Brent jumped 60 cents each to US$47.93 and US$50.82. Petronas Chemicals rose 16 sen to RM7.32 and added 2.17 points to the KLCI. Petronas Gas jumped 62 sen to RM19.12 and nudged the index up 2.08 points while Petronas Dagangan added 28 sen to RM24.28.
Petron Malaysia rose 51 sen to RM8.48 and Hengyuan 34 sen to RM4.24.
Genting Malaysia gained 16 sen to RM5.90 and pushed the KLCI up 1.61 points while Genting Bhd edged up one to RM9.73. Tenaga gained two sen to RM13.92 while MISC added seven sen to RM7.42.
BAT was the top gainer, up 98 sen to RM46 while Ajinomoto added 54 sen to RM19.80, Heineken 38 sen to RM18.50 but Nestle fell 44 sen to RM82.56.
IW City rose six sen to RM1.67 with 90 million shares, a slight reboiund after the selldown over the past two trading days.
Gas Malaysia lost 14 sen RM2.96 after the release of its results. However, its Bhd’s earnings is expected to improve in the coming quarters, though the earnings profile may change in 2018 once the third-party access (TPA) is implemented, according to CIMB Equities Research.
As for REV Asia, it was the case of buy on rumours and sell on news, sliding 12.5 sen to 77 sen with 7.51 million shares done after it announced it was selling a 70% stake in Rev Asia Holdings Sdn Bhd for RM73.5mil to Media Prima. Of the amount, RM59mil will be distributed to shareholders.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rebounded RM36 to RM2,664 per tonne. PPB Group gained 10 sen to RM17, KL Kepong added six sen to RM24.86, IOI Corp rose three sen to RM4.62 while Sime edged up two sen to RM9.33.
As for banks, Hong Leong Bank rose 20 sen to RM14.02, CIMB added six sen to RM5.91, RHB Bank four sen to RM5.50. AmBank one sen to RM5.56. Public Bank lost two sen to RM19.96 and Maybank gave up five sen to RM9.31.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended up 0.31% to 19,961.55;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.44% to 24,125.55;
CSI 300 added 0.57% to 3,356.65;
Shanghai’s Composite Index was up 0.29% to 3,061.50;
Hang Seng China Enterprise gained 0.3% to 10,257.63;
Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.33% to 10,001.48'
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.16% to 2,296.37 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index was up 0.53% to 3,267.09.
Spot gold added US$2.23 to US$1,221.33.
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