KUALA LUMPUR: Late fund buying of CIMB and other selected blue chips underpinned the FBM KLCI's late rally on Wednesday amid the firmer broader market and capping August on a steady note.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 12.02 points or 0.68% to 1,773.16 after shrugging off the early decline. Year-to-date, the KLCI is up 8.01%.
Turnover rose to 1.83 billion shares valued at RM2.21bil. The broader market improved with 449 gainers to 346 losers and 411 counters unchanged.
Emerging market stocks climbed back toward a three-year high and were heading for their longest run of monthly gains since 2003 on Wednesday, as nerves triggered by North Korea's latest missile launch began to recede, Reuters reported.
China stocks ended flat on Wednesday, as strong gains in airline operators and resources firms were offset by weakness in banking stocks with investors awaiting first-half results for some of the country's biggest banks, the wire reported.
The ringgit weakened 0.09% to the US dollar at 4.2710 but rose 0.23% to the pound sterling at 5.5168 and advanced 0.26% versus the Singapore dollar at 3.1479. It managed to recouped most of the previous day's losses against the eurp to climb 0.88% to 5.1006.
CIMB, which posted a stronger set of earnings in the second quarter, climbed 38 sen to RM7.08 and posered the KLCI up 5.86 points. Hong Leong Bank gained 18 sen to RM15.44, Public Bank added two sen to RM20.60, Maybank and RHB Bank were flat at RM9.46 and RM5.05 while AmBank shed three sen to RM4.28.
MISC rose 19 sen to RM7.44 and nudged the KLCI up 1.44 points, Gening Malaysia added seven sen to RM5.87 and Genting Bhd
six sen up to RM9.71 while Tenaga slipped two sen to RM14.28.
US light crude oil fell 30 cents to US$46.14 and Brent was down 48 cents to US$51.52. Petronas Dagangan added 30 sen to RM24.40, Petronas Gas six sen higher at RM18.40 and Petronas Chemicals shed three sen to RM7.16.
As for telcos, Axiata rose eight sen to RM4.93 and nudged the KLCI up 1.2 points after its stronger set of financial results. Its infrastructure arm, Edotco Group Sdn Bhd is buying 13,000 towers assets in Pakistan for US$940mil (RM4.01bil).
Maxis and Telekom rose one sen each to RM5.78 and RM6.43 but Digi shed four sen to RM4.84.
Time dotCom jumped 50 sen to RM9.90 with over half a million shares done. UMW added 44 sen to RM6.08 and chip maker MPI 38 sen higher at RM14.08.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM4 to RM2,709 per tonne. KL Kepong climnbed 10 sen to RM24.54, IOI Corp rose three sen to RM4.54, PPB Group two sen higher at RM16.68, Sime Darby was flat at RM9.
Among the chip makers, MPI rose 38 sen to RM14.08.
As for glove makers, Kossan was the top performer, advancing 21 sen to RM7.20 while Supermax lost three sen to RM1.78, Karex slipped five sen to RM1.41.
Sino Huaan was the most active counter with 217 million shares done after the turn around in its results. It surged 11.5 sen to15.5 sen. Other Malaysia-listed Chinese companies which also saw active trade includes China Stationery and Xinghe.
AirAsia struggled and dipped into negative territory towards the close, doen one sen to RM3.32.
Consumer stocks were among the top losers, Ajinomoto lost RM1.20 to RM21.24, Dutch Lady 36 sen to RM58.64, Nestle 20 sen to RM84 and F&N lost 18 sen to RM24.32.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.74% to 19,506.54;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 1.19% to 28,094.61;
CSI 300 edged 0.01% lower at 3,834.30;
Shanghai’s Composite Index shed 0.05% to 3,363.63;
Hang Seng China Enterprise rose 0.69% to 11,374.46;
Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.69% to 10,569.40;
South Korea’s Kospi added 0.32% to 2,372.29 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.49% to 3,265.26.
Spot gold rose US$1.69 to US$1,310.92.
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