Public Mutual, a unit of Public Bank, is Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips eked out small gains at midday on Monday, supported by Petronas Chemicals, Public Bank and selected plantation stocks in volatile trade while the ringgit and oil prices advanced.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 0.4 point or 0.02% to 1,675.28. Turnover was 837.88 million shares valued at RM635.45mil. There were 366 gainers, 322 losers and 328 stocks unchanged.
The ringgit was firmer against the US dollar at 4.2078 from last Friday’s closing of 4.2080 while it was at 6.0105 to the pound sterling from 6.0281 but slipped to 2.9995 to the Singapore dollar from 2.9929.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rose RM13 to RM2,599 per tonne. KL Kepong was the top performer, up 40 sen to RM24.30 and PPB Group gained 18 sen to RM16.14.
IJM Plantations lost 11 sen to RM3.64, Sime Darby shed seven sen to RM7.91 and IOI Corp six sen lower at RM.69.
US light crude oil rose 58 cents to US$30.22 and Brent added 47 cents to US$33.48 after Nigeria backed Saudi Arabia and Russia in freezing oil production while giving Iran and Iraq a way out to regain some of their lost market share due to sanctions and war, wire reports said.
Petronas Chemicals gained five sen to RM7.05, Petronas Dagangan lost four sen to RM25.36 and Petronas Gas two sen lower at RM22.48. SapuraKencana inched up one sen to RM1.97 and small cap Enra fell 25 sen to RM2.10.
Petron Malaysia
rose 17 sen to RM7.10.
Among the banks, Public Bank gained six sen to RM18.36, Hong Leong Bank rose four sen to RM13.10, Maybank one sen to RM8.64, CIMB shed one sen to RM4.30 and RHB Cap seven sen lower at RM5.42.
As for telcos, Maxis gained three sen to RM6.20, TM rose one sen to RM6.68, Axiata was flat at RM6 and Digi fell one sen to RM5.
Scomi rose two sen to 20 sen with 20 million shares done as investors were positive about the emergence of IJM Corp as a major shareholder.
Low-cost carrier AirAsia was up two sen to RM1.39 with 12.71 million shares done.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.05% to 16,135.56;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.11% to 19,500.23;
CSI 300 added 1.99% to 3,112.43;
Shanghai’s Composite Index gained 2.04% to 2,918.50;
Shenzhen Composite was up 1,69% to 1,881.78;
Hang Seng China Enterprise advanced 1.54% to 8,237.54;
Taiwan’s Taiex slipped 0.13% to 8,314.34;
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.14% to 1,913.50 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index edged up just 0.01% to 1,675.03.
Spot gold fell US$9.45 to US$1,217.35.
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