KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI posted a firm rebound during early trade on Tuesday after plunging nearly 43 points on Monday as crude oil prices rose after a five-year low.
At 9.19am, the KLCI was up 6.76 points to 1,785.03. Turnover was 212.74 million shares valued at RM115.2mil. There were 231 fainers, 128 decliners and 155 counters unchanged.
BIMB Research said in a note that the KLCI was hit badly from news that Pertonas will cut its capex following the sharp decline in crude prices.
"This reverberated to an across the board selldown on equities as the benchmark index was down a massive 42.62 points at 1,778.27 breaking multiple support levels along the way.
"Though we expect the market to improve overtime, we expect there to be further weakness in the immediate support level at 1,770.
"Yesterday there was a net outflow of foreign funds amounting RM111.4mil clearly showing the absence of any buying support," it said.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Asian equities gained on Tuesday as a rebound in the crude oil price gave resource-related sectors a breather, but Tokyo shares bucked the trend and slipped as the yen's losing streak was tempered.
Crude oil held to a swathe of gains after rebounding sharply overnight from five-year lows. The bounce in oil and other commodities was a good omen for currencies such as the Canadian and Australian dollars and also helped gold to bounce back, it said.
At Bursa Malaysia, PetDag rose 34 sen to RM14.98, PetGas 16 sen to RM21.16 and PetChem 11 sen to RM5.24.
UMW rose 20 sen to RM11.30 and SKPetro 11 sen to RM2.62.
Sime Darby rose 15 sen to RM9.59 and Gamuda 13 sen to RM5.13.
Decliners were RHBCap, down 13 sen to RM7.91 and IJMLand 15 sen to RM3.12.
BAT fell RM1.50 to RM71.50 and GAB 14 sen to RM13.02
Win a prize this Mother's Day by subscribing to our annual plan now! T&C applies.
