KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips edged higher early Wednesday on some buying support for key stocks while the breadth of the market was firmer as crude oil prices extended their gains.
At 9.15am, the KLCI was up 1.42 points or 0.08% to 1,764.76. Turnover was 138.97 million shares valued at RM68.53mil. There were 158 gainers, 106 losers and 181 counters unchanged.
Asian stocks edged up early after Wall Street indexes notched record highs, while the dollar was steady as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's policy decision later in the day for more clues on its tightening plans, Reuters reported.
The Fed concludes a two-day meeting later on Wednesday, and is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged.
In commodities, crude oil extended its surge after jumping overnight on data showing a sharp fall in US crude stocks last week. US crude rose 1% to US$48.36 a barrel and Brent added 0.7% to US$50.56 a barrel.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Research said tracking the positive overnight performance on the Wall Street, buying support may lift stocks higher on the local front.
It said the FBM KLCI should trend towards 1,770 led by oil and gas related heavyweights.
“Meanwhile, we may expect technical rebound within the small-to-mid cap stocks and lower liners after the recent profit taking activities,” said the research house.
Allianz-PA rose 36 sen to RM14.36, BAT 24 sen to RM44.88, Aeon Credit
11 sen to RM2.31 and Chin Hin five sen higher at RM1.40.
Refiners Petron rose 18 sen to RM8.53 and Hengyuan 13 sen higher at RM6.27.
As for technology-related and semiconductor-linked stocks, Vitrox rose 18 sen to RM4.33, Pentamaster 11 sen to RM4.11, Elsoft five sen to RM2.63 and Tecfast 4.5 sen to 84 sen.
Ta Ann fell the most, down seven sen to RM3.45 while Pecca lost six sen to RM1.61 and HaiO three sen to RM4.26.
CCK fell 3.5 sen to 90.5 sen with over one million shares done. CCK said a fire has damaged the fish ball production line at its subsidiary’s factory in Kuching. Production is expected to resume in one to two months.
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