KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips eked out small gains early Thursday while the ringgit managed to inch up against the US dollar amid the mixed broader market but Bumi Armada
came under selling pressure.
At 10am, the KLCI was up 0.9 of a point or 0.05% to 1,766.47. Turnover was 350.22 million shares valued at RM197.17mil. There were 263 gainers, 215 losers and 279 counters unchanged.
Foreign funds have been reducing their shareholdings in Malaysian equities over the past few trading days, but on a small scale.
Stock market data showed foreigners were net sellers at RM47.72mil while local retailers jumped with net buying at RM38.32mil and local institutions net buyers also at RM9.4mil.
The ringgit was up 0.04% to the US dollar at 4.285 from 4.286 the previous close.
BAT was the top gainer, up 40 sen to RM44.20 with 800 shares done while Ajinomoto added 12 sen to RM22.92.
SAM Engineering jumped 18 sen to RM7.70, Superlon and PMB Tech added 10 sen each to RM2.13 and RM2.15 while MPI and JF Tech gained eight sen each to RM13.38 and RM1.78.
Bumi Armada fell 2.5 sen to 68.6 sen with 8.23 million shares done after the suspension of its floating, production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO) Armada Perdana’s services.
Oil prices rose on Thursday for the first time in three days after US crude and gasoline stockpiles fell, Reuters reported.
Brent crude futures were 9 cents, or 0.2%percent higher, at US$44.91 while US crude futures rose 12 cents, or 0.3% at US$42.65 a barrel. On Wednesday, they settled down at $42.53, after touching their lowest intraday level since August 2016.
Refiners fell, tracking the overnight decline in oil prices. Petron lost 19 sen to RM7.15 and Hengyuan 17 sen lower at RM4.98.
KESM fell 12 sen to RM14.88, MISC and Edgenta eight sen lower to RM7.41 and RM2.37.
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