KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia closed mixed on Thursday but the FBM KLCI managed to post sight gains on buying of Nestle, Genting and Telekom.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 1.72 points or 0.09% to 1,839.62. Turnover was 2.23 billion shares valued at RM2.05bil. The broader market was mixed with 475 gainers, 431 losers and 446 counters unchanged.
Foreign funds were net sellers at RM90.6mil while local institutions were net buyers at RM71.60mil and retail investors at RM19mil.
Most southeast Asian markets rose on Thursday, with Indonesia and Vietnam gaining more than 1 percent each, as fears of a global trade war eased after the White House said some trade partners may be exempted from President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs, Reuters reported.
Hong Kong stocks rallied to recoup losses in the previous session, buoyed by China's robust trade data, and as trade war fears mitigated after news US President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs may exclude certain key partners, Reuters reported.
The ringgit weakened against several key currencies. It slipped 0.1% to the US dollar to 3.9085 and weakened 0.22% to the pound sterling at 5.4267 and was flat to the euro at 4.8430 while it shed 0.09% to the Singapore unit at 2.9705.
At Bursa Malaysia, consumer stocks continued to attract strong interest. Nestle rose RM3 to RM140 and pushed the KLCI up 1.26 points, Dutch Lady
gained 74 sen to RM67.70, Carlsberg 28 sen higher at RM19.98 while F&N was up 18 sen to RM30.92. BAT fell 12 sen to RM27.90.
Genting Bhd added 10 sen and pushed the KLCI up 0.7 of a point, Genting Malaysia rose two sen to RM6.15 while Tenaga was flat at RM15.60 and MISC shed three sen to RM6.75.
Among the banks, RHB Bank added seven sen to RM5.31, Public Bank six sen higher at RM23, AmBank added five sen to RM3.97 but CIMB and Maybank shed two sen each to RM7.13 and RM10.46. HL Bank lost 14 sen to RM18.56.
As for telcos, Telekom climbed seven sen to RM5.63, Axiata two sen higher at RM5.43, Maxis eked out a one sen gain to RM5.89 but Digi shed two sen to RM4.72.
QES, which made its debut on the ACE Market, closed three sen higher at 22 sen with 123 million shares done.
Crude palm oil fell RM34 to RM2,409 per tonne, the lowest since August 2016. Batu Kawan fell the most, down 22 sen to RM18.40, KL Kepong rose two sen to RM25.36, IOI Corp added four sen to RM4.83 an PPB Group eight sen to RM18.
Sime Darby fell one sen to RM2.59, Sime Property lost three sen to RM1.34 but Sime Plantations added two sen to RM5.46.
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