Trading volume on Bursa surges on China stocks, foreign buying hits RM100m

For the month, the FBM KLCI is down 3.18% and year-to-date, it is down 8.02%.

KUALA LUMPUR: The turnaround in the fortunes of coal producer Sino Hua-an International helped garner interest in selected Chinese companies listed on Bursa Malaysia which pushed trading to the highest in recent months.

 At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 3.53 points or 0.2% to 1,769.63. Turnover rose to 2.53 billion shares valued at RM2.17bil. The broader market remained cautious, with decliners beating advancers nearly five to three or 536 losers to 335 gainers and 377 counters unchanged.

Foreign funds were net buyers on Tuesday at RM103.07mil while retailers were net sellers at RM4.5mil while local institutionsn stepped up their profit taking and net selling rose to RM98.57mil. 

The ringgit rallied against the US dollar, pound sterling, Singapore dollar and the euro. The local unit rose 0.26% to the greenback at 4.2600, climbed 0.29% to the pound sterling to 5.5092, edge dup 0.13% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1445 and jumped 0.44% to the euro at 5.0638.

Hong Kong shares finished unchanged on Tuesday, with investors remaining in a defensive mood on persistent concerns over North Korea, Reuters reported.

However, Chinese shares inched higher for the third session to fresh 20-month highs, apparently unfazed by tensions over North Korea, and bolstered by expectations economic growth will largely remain solid through year-end despite tighter policy.

The wire reported investors are also adding to positions on expectations that further reforms will be announced after a Communist Party Congress that starts in mid-October.

At Bursa, Hua-An was the most active with 249.89 million shares done. It surged 5.5 sen to 21 sen – the highest since August 2014 – after it returned to profitability last week. 

China Stationery Limited jumped three sen to seven sen with 151 million shares done. Xinghe added one sen to 6.5 sen and the warrants 0.5 sen to two sen.

The four counters totalled 525.50 million units.

However, on a more downbeat note, CIMB came under profit taking after last Wednesday's price surge, falling 32 sen to RM6.76 and erasing 4.94 points from the KLCI. Maybank shed four sen to RM9.42 and wiped out 0.72 points, Public Bank and RHB Bank were unchanged atRM20.60 and RM5.05 while AmBank added one sen to RM4.29 and HL Bank two sen higher at RM15.46.

US oil prices rose on Tuesday as the gradual restart of refineries in the Gulf of Mexico that were shut by Hurricane Harvey raised demand for crude, their main feedstock, Reuters reported.

US light crude jumped 48 cents to US$47.77 and Brent added 12 cents to US$52.46.

Petronas Chemical was the biggest contributor to the KLCI, climbing 14 sen to RM7.30 – the highest since late May – and adding 1.91 points to the KLCI. Petronas Dagangan added 44 sen to RM24.70 and Petronas Gas shed two sen to RM18.38.

Axiata climbed 12 sen to RM5.05 and nudged the KLCI up 1.84 points, Telekom fell three sen to RM6.40, Digi two sen lower to RM4.82 and Maxis five sen lower to RM5.73.

Crude palm oil (CPO) for third month delivery rose RM56 to RM2,762 per tonne. 

Overall sentiment is positive due to developments in the soy complex, says Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, head of trading and hedging strategies at Kaleesuwari Intercontinental, Bloomberg reported.

Among the plantations, PPB Group added 12 sen to RM16.80, KL Kepong two sen higher at RM24.56, IOI Corp shed one sen to RM4.53 while Sime Darby was flat at RM9.

As for heavyweights, Genting Malaysia fell five sen to RM5.82, Genting Bhd added seven sen to RM9.78 while Tenaga Nasional's 10 sen advanced pushed the KLCI up  nearly one point.