Blue chips eke small gains, oil stocks climb

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips edged slightly higher early Thursday while lower liners oil and gas stocks rose in active trade, underpinned by the strong crude oil prices.

At 9.31am, the KLCI was up 1.08 points or 0.06% at 1,774.66. Turnover was 720.31 million shares valued at RM316.57mil. There were 193 gainers, 200 losers and 276 counters unchanged.

The US dollar shone while Asian shares slipped slightly on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve announced a plan to start shrinking its balance sheet and signalled one more rate hike later this year, Reuters reported.

MSCI's broadest dollar-denominated index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4%. South Korea's Kospi was down 0.1% while Australia shed 0.6%. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.8% thanks to the yen's fall against the dollar.

Meanwhile, Kenanga Investment Bank Research said the stock market’s near-term weakness is likely to be shallow and temporary as the broader technical picture remains positive. 

“As such, we would not be surprised to see bargain hunting at the 1,770 (S1) and 1,760 (S2) support levels. Beyond the current weakness, resistance levels to watch include 1,796 (R1) and 1,840 (R2),” it said.

Chip maker MOI and tester KESM were among the gainers. MI added 16 sen to RM13.56  and KESM 10 sen to RM16.08. JF Tech jumped 14 sen to RM2.05.

As for consumer stocks, Ajinomoto was the top gainer, up 36 sen to RM20.96 with 400 shares done, Carlsberg added six sen to RM14.92.

Press Metal rose in active trade, gaining seven sen to RM3.77.

Hibiscus was the most active with 147 million shares done, climbing 4.5 sen to 69.5 sen. UMW Oil and Gas added 2.5 sen to 3.5 sen, Alam Maritim two sen to 23.5 sen, KNM and Hubline 0.5 sen hugher at 29 sen and eight sen. Sumatec gained 0.5 sen to seven sen.

Lotte Chemical Titan fell the most, down 13 sen to RM5.16 with 3.77 million shares done. A fire broke out at one of its plants in Pasir Gudang bbut it was put out in 10 minutes. Analysts said the fire would have only a minor impact.

Aeon Credit, Top Glove and Southern Steel lost six sen each to RM12.86, RM5.44 and RM2.31 respectively.