KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of CIMB, Petronas Gas and Tenaga Nasional shored up the FBM KLCI at midday on Tuesday amid the profit taking on selected stocks including tech counters but the ringgit remained firm against the key currencies including the US dollar.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was up 0.81 of a point or 0.05% to 1,789.70. Turnover was 1.11 billion shares valued at RM1.05bil. There were 322 gainers, 473 losers and 344 counters unchanged.
Asia-Pacific stocks advanced as the global selloff in technology shares showed signs of easing, while the pound held losses as Theresa May fought to survive the fallout from the British general election, Bloomberg reported.
The ringgit rose 0.19% to the US dollar to 4.2598 and climbed 0.79% versus the pound sterling to 5.3902 and advanced 0.13% to the Singapore dollar to 3.0801. It rose 0.46% against the euro to 4.7675
Among the banks, Hong Leong Bank rose 12 sen to RM15.32 while CIMB added nine sen to RM6.72 with 22.21 million shares and pushed the KLCI up 1.34 points, Public Bank two sen higher at RM20.40, Maybank added one sen to RM9.58 but AmBank lost 12 sen to RM4.94, RHB Bank shed three sen to RM5.10.
Tenaga rose eight sen to RM14.48, Genting Bhd
two sen higher at RM9.78 while Genting Malaysia lost nine sen to RM5.61. IHH Healthcare fell eight sen to RM6 and wiped out 1.08 points.
US light crude oil rose 17 cents to US$46.25 and Brent gained 19 cents to US$48.48. Petronas Gas rose 26 sen to RM19.46, Petronas Chemicals fell two sen to RM7.18 and Petronas Dagangan eight sen lower at RM24.24.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM4 to RM2,461 per tonne. IOI Corp was flat at RM4.54, KL Kepong lost four se to RN24.76, PPB Group was down six sen to RM16.88 and Sime Dary edged up one sen to RM16.88.
As for telcos, Axiata added two sen to RM4.99, Telekom gained four sen to RM6.57, Digi was flat at RM6.72, Maxis fell eight sen to RM6.11.
Tech stocks came under some selling pressure after the overnight decline on Wall Street. MPI fell 24 sen to RM13.10, Globetronics 20 sen lower at RM6.09, KESM lost 18 sen to RM14.84 and Unisem was down 14 sen to RM3.51.
MAHB was the top loser, down 29 sen to RM8.99 on profit taking, MISC lost 17 sen to RM7.26.
Priceworth was the most active with 81.78 million shares done, up 3.5 sen to 27.5 sen.
FGV saw active trade following the corporate developments, with the shares up five sen to RM1.71 with 32.98 million shares done, its call warrants C27 added one sen to 4.5 sen and C26 gained 0.5 sen to 4.5 sen.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.01% to 19,907.58;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.52% to 25,841.87;
CSI 300 added 0.15% to 3,579.79;
Shanghai’s Composite Index gained 0.36% to 3,151.25;
Hang Seng China Enterprise added 0.76% to 10,565.92;
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.31% to 10,141.77;
South Korea’s Kospi added 0.51% to 2,369.94 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.36% to 3,259.97.
Spot gold edged up 31 cents to US$1,266.49.
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