KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of key stocks Petronas Gas, IHH Healthcare and Maybank helped underpin the FBM KLCI's strong closing on Tuesday while overall trading volume on Bursa Malaysia rose to the highest since late May.
The KLCI closed up 7.12 points or 0.4% to 1,789.86 – the highest since June 16 and it is up 9.02% year-to-date. Turnover rose to 3.66 billion shares valued at RM2.25bil compared with the 2.73 billion shares worth RM2.16bil on Monday.
The broader market was slightly firmer with 460 gainers, 345 losers and 462 counters unchanged.
Meanwhile, the ringgit closed mixed, sliding against the US dollar and pound sterling but firmer against the Singapore dollar at euro.
It fell 0.24% to the US dollar at 4.2080 and lost 0.84% to the pound in late trade but its eked out a gain of 0.02% to the Singapore unit at 3.1257 and gained 0.29% to the euro at 5.0302.
On the external front, China stocks edged higher, though gains rooted in consumer and financial firms were pared as shares of new energy auto firms succumbed to profit-taking late in the session, Reuters reported.
Hong Kong shares were steady on Tuesday, with the benchmark index staying close to more than two-year highs but not joining most Asian exchanges climbing after New York stocks surged overnight.
Oil prices softened on Tuesday as Hurricane Irma's dampening effect on demand offset refinery restarts in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. US light crude oil fell 24 cents to US$47.83 and Brent lost 28 cents to US$53.56.
Petronas Gas rose 64 sen to RM18.74 and pushed the KLCI up 2.15 points, Petronas Dagangan added two sen to RM24.22 but Petronas Chemicals shed two sen to RM7.45. Petron rose 14 sen to RM9.97 but Hengyuan fell 12 sen to RM8.09 on profit taking.
IHH Healthcare rose 14 sen to RM6 and added nearly two points to the KLCI, MISC gained nine sen to RM7.38, Genting Bhd
four sen higher at RM9.95 abd Genting Malaysia flat at RM5.90. Tenaga was unchanged at RM14.58.
Among the banks, Maybank rose eight sen to RM9.70 and nudged the KLCI up 1.44 points, CIMB and RHB Bank gained three sen each to RM6.80 amd RM5.06, Public Bank tow sen higher at RM20.62, Ambank inched up omne sen to RM4.30.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery gained RM25 to RM2,827 per tonne. United Plantations rose 16 sen to RM28.16, KL Kepong six sen higher at RM24.80, IOI Corp and PPB Group two sen higher at RM4.55 and RM16.84 while Sime Dareby shed one sen to RM9.13.
As for telcos, Axiata, Digi and Maxis eked out a one sen gain each to RM5.13, RM4.91 and RM5.82 while Telekom shed two sen to RM6.43.
Among the consumer stocls. Nestle gained 58 sen to RM85.48, Ajinomoto 30 sen to RM19.42, BAT 22 sen higher at RM44 while F&N gained 18 sen to RM24.80.
PMB Tech jumped 29 sen to RM2.64 but MPI fell 40 sen to RM13.60, Pentamaster 14 sen to RM4.59.
MQTech surged 3.5 sen to 8.5 sen and it was the most active with 486.61 million shares done while the warrants jumped two sen to five sen with 240.8 million units done. M3Tech added 0.5 sen to 10.5 sen and the warrants 0.5 sen to 5.5 sen.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.18% to 19,776.62;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index inched up 0.06% to 27,972.24;
CSI 300 added 0.32% to 3,837.93;
Shanghai’s Composite Index eked out a gain of 0.09% to 3,379.49;
Hang Seng China Enterprise added 0.19% to 11,242.06;
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.36% to 10,610.35;
South Korea’s Kospi added 0.27% to 2,365.47; and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index advanced 0.22% to 3,235.69.
Spot gold fell US$1.47 to US$1,326.07.
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