Bursa stays firm amid drop in oil prices

KUALA LUMPUR: The local market managed to hold firm in Tuesday's morning trade as regional markets fell back on a sharp decline in crude oil prices and a bullish dollar.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.7%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.9% and the Kospi slid 0.2%.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 1.17 points to 1,727.84. Trading volume was 1.32 billion shares with a value of RM939.96mil. There were 371 advancing counters versus 348 decliners and 381 unchanged.

Digi was top on the list of gainers on the index, rising 27 sen to RM4.54 on the back of a positive earnings announcement on Friday.

Other leading gainers included Tenaga Nasional, which rose eight sen to RM14.72, Genting Malaysia, which added four sen to to RM5.04 and Petronas Gas, which climbed six sen to RM18.42.

Banking stocks were trading mixed. CIMB rose two sen to RM5.68, while Hong Leong Bank declined four sen to RM18.86. Maybank was unchanged at 9.57 while Public Bank was also unmoved at RM23.02.

On the broader market, Kossan moved 13 sen higher to RM8.72, Scientex gained 16 sen to RM7.83 and Pharmaniaga gained 11 sen to RM3.30.

Slipping back, Carlsberg gave up 16 sen to RM19.20, Allianz slipped 12 sen to RM12.56 while Shangri-La dropped 12 sen to RM5.86.

In oil markets, prices rebounded following steep losses in the previous session as Libya's major oil fields resumed production. A strike among oil workers in Norway intensified, help to prop up a market facing oversupply issues.

WTI crude edged up one cent to US$68.07 a barrel while Brent crude gained 35 cents to US$72.19 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit was unchanged against the greenback at 4.0443. It was 0.12% stronger against the pound sterling at 5.3580 and 0.1% weaker against the Singapore dollar at 2.9738.