KUALA LUMPUR: Key Asian markets were higher at midday, riding the rebound on Wall Street while crude oil prices edged higher but the FBM KLCI was off its day's best, weighed by losses in Hong Leong Bank.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was up 0.29 of a point or 0.02% to 1,771.52. The broader market was slightly firmer with 323 gainers and 258 losers while 463 counters were unchanged. Turnover was 730.87 million shares valued at RM601.04mil.
The ringgit rose against the US dollar but extended it decline against the other key currencies.
It edged up 0.03% versus the US dollar to 4.2960. If fell 0.93% against the pound sterling to 5.5650 and was down 0.34% to the Singapore unit at 3.1115 and lost 0.33% to the euro to 4.9000.
US light crude oil rose 20 cents to US$44.94 and Brent added 17 cents to US$47.48. Petronas Chemicals rose three sen to RM7.13, Petronas Dagangan was flat at RM24.16 while Petronas Gas shed two sen to RM18.70.
Sapura Energy
rose five sen to RM1.62 and it was the most active with 18.79 million shares done.
Among the consumer stocks, Ajinomoto rose 34 sen tp RM24.64, Heineken 14 sen higher ay RM18.32 and Kawan Foods 12 sen to RM4.87 but F&N lost 68 sen to RM25.32, BAT 24 sen to RM15.62 and Dutch Lady 10 sen lower at RM58.10.
Magni-Tech surged 62 sen to RM7.47 after its earnings rose sharply.
Tenaga was unchanged at RM14.14, Genting Bhd rose seven sen to RM9.57 and Genting Malaysia four sen higher at RM5.63.
Tech-related stock Vitrox gained 14 sen to RM8.15 but MPI fell 16 sen to RM13.24 and PMB Tech lost 12 sen to RM2.30.
Hong Leong Bank's rally hit a speed bump, down 38 sen to RM15.62 and erased 1.36 points from the KLCI. However, year-to-date it is up RM2.28.
Maybank was flat at RM9.63, AmBank rose one sen to RM4.88, Public Bank eked out a two sen gain to RM20.28 but CIMB fell three sen to RM6.65 and RHB Bank shed one sen to RM5.06.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM15 to RM2,455 per tonne. IOI Corp added four sen to RM4.49, PPB Group gained 10 sen to RM16.90, KL Kepong was flat at RMRM24.84 and Sime Darby shed four sen to RM9.57.
As for telcos, Axiata inched up one sen to RM4.92, Digi was flat at RM5.01, Maxis lost one sen to RM5.60 and Telekom two sen lower at RM6.60.
Among the key regional markets:
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.51% to 20,233.15
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.88% to 25,910.58;
CSI 300 gained 0.37% to 3,659.65;
Shanghai’s Composite Index added 0.32% to 3,183.21;
Hang Seng China Enterprise gained 0.15% to 10,423.34;
Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.45% to 10,437.55;
South Korea’s Kospi eas up 0.64% to 2,397.74 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index jumped 1.12% to 3,251.58.
Spot gold added US$2.78 to US$1,252.05.
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