KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips eked out small gains early Thursday, in line with key Asian markets as investors expected Britain to stay in the EU, as Sime Darby and Hong Leong Bank led the FBM KLCI slightly higher.
At 9.07am, the KLCI was up 0.19 of a point or 0.01% to 1,637.88. Turnover was 92.54 million shares valued at RM42.50mil. There were 104 gainers and 82 losers.
Foreign funds tip-toed back into the market on Tuesday with net buying at RM97.30mil while local institutions were net sellers at –RM79.2mil and local retail investo5s at –RM18.1mil.
Asian shares edged up and sterling stood close to its peak for the year on Thursday, as investors were cautiously optimistic that British voters would opt to remain in the European Union at a referendum later in the session, Reuters reported.
Two opinion polls published late on Wednesday, a few hours before voters were due to begin to cast their votes, showed the "Remain" camp gaining momentum in the closely divided campaign.
Reuters also reported Brent crude oil added 0.7% to US$50.23 a barrel after shedding 1.5% on Wednesday, while US crude was up 0.8% at US$49.53 after giving up 1.4% in the previous session.
Spot gold plumbed a two-week low of US$1,260.36 an ounce and was last down 0.4% at US$1,261.24.
At Bursa Malaysia, consumer stocks were the top gainers in thin trade. BAT added 70 sen to RM50.70, Dutch Lady
48 sen to RM58.28 and F&N 20 sen to RM25.50.
Among the plantations, United Plantations rose 18 sen to RM26.70, KL Kepong 16 sen to RM23.24 and heavyweight Sime Darby seven sen to RM7.59. PPB Group was down four sen to RM16.38
Hong Leong Bank added eight sen to RM13.34.
Top Glove recovered to add six sen to RM4.67 but Kossan fell 14 sen to RM6.38.
Sona Petroleum added 0.5 sen to 45.5 sen as investors expected it to be wound up and pay out 48 sen per share.
Comintel Corp rose five sen to 71.5 sen with five million shares done after the selldown on Tuesday.
AirAsia fell two sen to RM2.62 in active trade.
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