KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips chalked up some gains on Monday with Sime Darby and Hong Leong Bank among the gainers, while sentiment was underpinned by the firm industrial output data and also the positive key Asian markets.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 2.84 points or 0.16% to 1,782.74. Turnover was 2.73 billion shares valued at RM2.16bil. There were 502 gainers, 312 losers and 435 counters unchanged.
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar and the pound sterling but rose against the Singapore unit and the euro. It slipped 0.02% to the greenback at 4.1962 and fell 0.41% to the pound at 5.5355. It rose 0.31% to the Singapore dollar at 3.1263 and advanced 0.34% to the euro at 5.0448.
Foreign funds were net buyers on Bursa Malaysia in the week ended Sept 8 at RM362.6mil which was the highest in 17 weeks, says MIDF Research, brining the total amount year-to-date to RM10.7bil.
A widely-tracked index of global stocks, MSCI's All-Country World Index, hit a new record high in European trading on Monday, Reuters reported.
The move came as investors breathed a double sigh of relief that hurricane Irma had lost some strength in the United States and that North Korea had not conducted any further missile tests over the weekend as it celebrated its founding anniversary.
The MSCI index tracks roughly 2,400 stocks in 47 countries. A total of $2.8 trillion assets are benchmarked against it, MSCI says.
Crude palm oil for third month rose RM3 to RM2,796 a tonne – again the highest since March 23 as Malaysia's shipments picked up.
Sime Darby, which provided more details about the hiving off its plantation and property units, rose seven sen to RM9.14 and added 0.78 of a point to the KLCI. However, KL Kepong and PPB Group were flat at RM24.74 and RM16.82 while IOI Corp shed two sen to RM4.53.
As for banks, Hong Leong Bank gained 24 sen to RM15.88 and pushed the KLCI up 0.86 of a point, RHB Bank gained three sen to RM5.03, Maybank added two sen to RM9.62 while Public Bank and AmBank were flat at RM20.60 and RM4.29,
Among the heavyweights, Genting Malaysiua rouse four sen to RM5.90 but Genting Bhd
shed five sen to RM9.91, IHH Healthcare and Tenaga were flat at RM5.86 and RM14.58.
As for consumer stocks, Nestle was the top gainer, up 48 sen to RM84.90 but BAT fell 40 sen to RM43.78.
US light crude oil rose 38 cents to US$47.86 byt Brent shed five cents to US$53.73.
Again the refiners were among the top gainers with Hengyuan up 47 sen to RM8.21 and Petron added 43 sen to RM9.83.
Lotte Chemical Titian added 26 sen to RM5.77. Petronas Chemicals rose two sen to RM7.47, Petronas Gas shed eight sen to RM18.10 and Petronas Dagangan two sen lower at RM24.20.
Sino Hua-an rose two sen to 25.5 sen with 165.56 million shares done.
Glove makers were among the top losers, with Hartalega down 20 sen to RM6.70 while Top Glove and Kossan lost 18 sen each to RM5.40 and RM6.82.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.41% to 19,545.77;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 1.04% to 27,955.13;
CSI 300 shed 0.01% to 3,825.65;
Shanghai’s Composite Index gained 0.33% to 3,376.42;
Hang Seng China Enterprise advanced 0.64% to 11,221.13;
Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.36% to 10,572.16;
South Korea’s Kospi ros e0.66% to 2,359.08 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index was flat at 3,228.51.
Spot gold fell US$7.79 to US$1,338.62 per troy ounce.
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