Bursa Malaysia joined the key Asian markets recovery as they notched gains of between 0.4% and 2.25% with Dialog, telcos, glove makers and Maybank underpinning the advance.
KUALA LUMPUR: Telcos and Public Bank led the FBM KLCI's winning streak for the seventh day on Tuesday – the longest stretch since the battering after the Pakatan Harapan coalition won in the May 9 general election – as investor sentiment improved.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 10.61 points or 0.61% to 1,737.28 in a late push. Turnover was 2.34 billion shares valued at RM2.14bil. There were 473 gainers, 376 losers and 409 counters unchanged.
Among the key Asian markets, Japan and Singapore were among the top gainers but China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea fell.
Digi rose 32 sen to RM4.59 and pushed the KLCI up 4.41 points after its stronger earnings galvanised investor sentiment towards the telco.
Axiata added four sen to RM4.23 while Maxis gained two sen to RM5.50 and Telekom inched up one sen to RM3.71.
Public Bank was the top gainer, up 58 sen to RM23.60 and pushed the KLCI up nearly four points. Maybank, CIMB and RHB Bank gained one sen each to RM9.58, RM5.67 and RM5.31 respectively. Hong Leong Bank was flat at RM18.90.
Tenaga rose 14 sen to RM14.78 and added 1.4 points to the KLCI.
Earlier, CIMB Equities Research said it was maintaining its Hold call for Tenaga although its share price has retraced about 9% since end-March 2018. The new target price is RM15 compared with the previous RM16.70.
Other gainers were Heineken, up 40 sen to RM23.50 while BAT rose 10 sen to RM33.20. Carlsberg fell 30 sen to RM19.06 and Ajinomoto 16 sen lower at RM10.62.
Scientex 19 sen to RM7.86 and PIE and Kossan 12 sen each to RM1.66 and RM8.71. Lafarge added 10 sen to RM3.20 on hopes of a turnaround in the construction industry.
Crude palm oil fell RM3 to RM2,170 per tonne. IOI Corp fell 10 sen to RM4.40, PPB Group and KL Kepong were flat at RM19.82 and RM24.28.
Sime Plantation lost nine sen to RM5.23 and erased 1.08 points from the KLCI, Sime Property one sen lower at RM1.22 but Sime Darby added one sen to RM2.38.
US light crude oil fell 18 cents to US$67.88 and Brent lost 24 cents to US$71.60.
Oil prices have fallen by almost 10% over the last week as crude export terminals in Libya have reopened and exports from other OPEC countries and Russia have improved, Reuters reported.
Also undermining prices is concern the growing trade war between the United States and other major trading blocs, particularly, China, could dampen economic activity and hence squeeze oil demand.
Petronas Chemical fell seven sen to RM8.80 but Pewtronas Dagangan added four sen to RM25.80 and Petronas Gas six sen higher to RM18.42. Dialog fell three sen to RM3.25.
The ringgit slumped against the key currencies, dipping 0.02% against the US dollar to 4.0450, down 0.01% vs the pound sterling to 5.3646, falling 0.29% to the euro to 4.7486 and it lost 0.17% to the Singapore unit to 2.9759.
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