Blue chips steady early Tuesday, Public Bank and MAHB up

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips chalked up some small gains early Tuesday, supported by buying of Public Bank, MAHB and Petronas Dagangan.

 At 9.25am, the KLCI was up 0.3 of a point or 0.02% higher at 1,775.25. Turnover was 384.92 million shares valued at RM160.43mil. There were 237 gainers, 244 losers and 278 counters unchanged.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was steady early on Tuesday. It hit its highest level since May 2015 on Monday, posting its biggest one-day gain in over two months, Reuters reported.

Japan's Nikkei slipped almost 0.1% while Australian and South Korean shares both posted gains of about 0.1%.

Sterling extended losses after British police said they were treating an explosion in Manchester as a possible terrorist attack, while the euro retained gains made on comments by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the common currency was "too weak."

On the technical outlook for the Malaysian stock market, Kenanga Investment Bank Research said the short-term uptrend was still intact as the KLCI is reversing from its channel support line of 1,760 (S1) while trending above all its key moving averages. 

“Nonetheless, with the daily RSI and Stochastic tapering off to hint lacklustre buying momentum, the key index could look to continue to be caught range bound this week. 

“All in, we continue to expect the KLCI to trade within 1,760 (S1)-1,784 (R1) this week albeit on a mild upside-bias note. The next level of resistance and support is found at 1,800 (R2)/1,743 (S2), respectively,” it said.

Petronas Dagangan rose 24 sen to RM25.28, Public Bank added 12 sen to RM20.22, MAHB gained 11 sen to RM8.56 while Hong Leong Bank rose 10 sen to RM14.14.

Vitrox gained 20 sen to RM6.60 and Kim Hin 12 sen to RM2.36 while Tong Herr added 11 sen to RM3.73.

Petronas Gas fell 26 sen to RM19.54, Aeon Credit also down 26 sen to RM19.02 while Telekom gave up 10 sen to RM6.40. Tune Protect fell 10  sen to RM1.44 and Lafarge eight sen down to RM5.67.