Plantations, Hong Leong Bank lift KLCI early Thursday

KUALA LUMPUR: Mild buying of plantation stocks Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) and PPB Group and also Hong Leong Bank underpinned the FBM KLCI’s slight gains early Thursday while key Asian markets were also firmer.

At 9.16am, the KLCI was up 0.06 points to 1,773.81. Turnover was 165.55 million shares valued at RM94.44mil. There were 168 gainers, 101 losers and 205 counters unchanged.

Asian stocks edged up on Thursday as tensions between the US and North Korea came off the boil. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.3 percent in early trade.

Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.1%, weighed down by the yen's strength. South Korean shares advanced 0.1% after the leaders of both North Korea and the United States appeared to back off from their heated rhetoric from last week.

Kenanga Investment Bank Research, in its technical outlook for the KLCI on Thursday, said while indicators are also displaying fairly neutral signs.

“These signals suggest some sideways consolidation with a slight bias towards the downside with the presence of an earlier ‘death-cross’ between key simple moving averages (SMAs). 

“From here, some immediate support can be found at 1,764 (S1), with a stronger support lower down at 1,750 (S2). Conversely, expect some resistances at 1,783 (R1) and 1,789 (R2),” it said.

KLK rose 50 sen to RM25 while PPB added 10 sen to RM16.60. HL Bank climbed 16 sen to RM15.56 and MAHB added six sen  to RM8.53. However, heavyweight Sime shed four sen to RM9.26.

Among the chip and tech-related stocks, KESM added 10 sen to Rm15.30, Pentamaster 10 sen to RM4.73 while Vitrox gained seven sen to RM4.62.

IFCA MSC added 2.5 sen to 42 sen with 15.48 million shares done.  CIMB Equities Research is maintaining its earnings per share (EPS) forecasts and target price of 42 sen for IFCA, which is based on an unchanged 30% discount to sum-of-parts to reflect its small market capitalisation.

However, MPI fell 10 sen to RM14 with 3,200 shares done.

Property-education group Paramount lost five sen to RM1.81.

MISC and Maxis lost three sen each to RM7.27 and RM5.72.