KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips ended the morning session on Thursday on a lacklustre note in the absence of strong leads from institutions except for Petronas Gas and Genting Bhd
while the ringgit was firmer against the US dollar.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 1.17 points or 0.07% to 1,776.74. Turnover was 777.14 million shares valued at RM667.21mil. There were 301 gainers, 294 losers and 474 stocks unchanged.
The ringgit edged up 0.03% against the US dollar to 4.2863. However, it fell 0.45% versus the pound sterling to 5.4309 and dipped 0.08% to the Singapore dollar at 3.0855. It lost 0.17% to the euro to 4.7868.
Bloomberg reported the one-month ringgit forwards were up for the second day as the greenback weakened and oil prices climbed from a seven-month low.
“A failure by US$/ringgit to break 4.25 and advance to 4.21 may see a retest of the 4.30/4.32 area in the short term,” it reported. The one-month US$/ringgit non-deiverable forwards fell 0.3% to 4.3002.
US light crude oil and Brent inched up one cent to US$42.54 and US$44.83.
Petronas Dagangan fell 54 sen to RM24.24, refiner Petron 29 sen down to RM7.05 and Hengyuan 25 sen lower at RM4.90. Bumi Armada lost 2.5 sen to 68.5 sen and Sapura Energy six sen lower at RM1.55 in active trade.
However, Petronas Gas rose 20 sen to RM18.90 and nudged the KLCI up 0.65 of a point while Petronas Chemicals added one sen to RM7.16.
Among the key stocks, Genting Bhd added 12 sen to RM9.70 and boosted the KLCI by 0.75 of a point, Genting Malaysia one sen higher at RM5.51, MAHB was up 10 sen to RM8.70 while Tenaga was flat at RM14.18
As for consumer stocks, BAT rose 74 sen to RM44.54 and Ajinomoto 50 sen higher at RM23.30 but Dutch Lady lost 40 sen to RM58 and Nestle 14 sen lower at RM82.86.
Tech stocks fared well with Vitrox up 32 sen to RM7.93, SAM Engineering 28 sen higher at RM7.80, PMB Tech advanced 25 sen to RM2.30.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM5 to RM2.437 per tonne. PPB Group and KL Kepong shed two sen each to RM16.96 and RM24.88, IOI Corp one sen to RM4.48 but Sime Darby added onbe sen to RM9.60.
Among the telcos, Axiata and Telekom fell three sen each to RM4.95 and RM6.62 while Digi and Maxis were flat at RM4.99 and RM5.59.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.15% to 20,168.54;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaine d0.56% to 25,839.29;
CSI 300 jumnped 1.03% to 3,624.95;
Shanghai’s Composite Index added 0.76% to 3,180.10;
Hang Seng China Enterprise rose 1.06% to 10,504.11;
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.37% to 10,388.31;
South Korea’s Kospi added 0.23% to 2,362.87 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index was up 0.64% to 3,222.12.
Spot gold gained US$5.78 to US$1,252.26.
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