KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of key stocks including Tenaga Nasional, Sime Darby and Axiata underpinned the FBM KLCI's gains towards the key 1,700 level on Monday, due to the rebound in crude oil prices and stronger ringgit.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 6.18 points or 0.37% to 1,690.33. Turnover was 2.31 billion shares valued at RM1.74bil. There were 449 gainers, 412 losers and 352 counters unchanged.
The ringgit firmed up against the US dollar to 4.0028 from the previous close of 4.0275 while it was at 5.1785 against the pound sterling from 5.2154. It was at 2.9840 to the Singapore dollar from 2.9892 and rose to 4.4768 against the Euro from 4.4896.
Cumulative net foreign inflow into Bursa Malaysia since January to Aug 12, 2016 is at almost RM2bil, says MIDF Equities Research.
Crude palm oil rallied RM101 to RM2,626 per tonne on declining stockpiles in Malaysia in July and Indonesia in June.
Among the key Asian markets, Reuters reported Hong Kong shares finished at a fresh nine-month high on Monday, as depressed global interest rates pushed some stock investors to hunt for yields in emerging markets.
Sentiment was also buoyed by buoyant China stocks, which jumped to seven-month highs on optimism that Beijing will roll out more policy easing measures to prop up the flagging economy.
At Bursa, Tenaga rose 24 sen to RM14.76 and pushed the KLCI up 2.30 points.
Heavyweight Sime Darby tose 10 sen to RM8.09 and added 1.07 point to the KLCI, KL Kepong gained four sen to RM23.30, IOI Corp edged up one sen to RM4.40 while PPB Group lost two sen to RM16 on net losses from its associate Wilmar.
KESM was the best performer following its strong earnings and upgrade, surging 73 sen to RM7.68.
Oriental Holdings climbed 50 sen to RM7.08 on expectations of a revaluation of its assets and cash pile. If revalued, the net asset value per share could be more than RM20 per share.
As for consumer stocks, Dutch Lady
rose 34 sen to RM64 and Nestle added 20 sen to RM79.80. However, BAT fell 24 sen to RM51.08 and Ajinomoto 14 sen lower at RM14.42.
Oil prices rose on Monday to their highest in nearly a month, with benchmark Brent crude trading more than 10% above the start of August, as speculation intensified about potential producer action to support prices in an oversupplied market, Reuters. US light crude rose 13 cents to US$44.62 and Brent added 12 cents to US$14.09.
SapuraKencana C25 rose 4.5 sen to eight sen to 87 million units done, its other cal warrants C26 gained four sen to 8.5 sen. SKPetro gained seven sen to RM1.57.
Petronas Dagangan added four sen to RM23.48, Petronas Gas was flat at RM22.18 and Petronas Chemicals fell one sen to RM6.67.
As for banks, Public Bank gained six sen to RM19.76, CIMB four sen to RM4.66, AmBank two sen to RM4.46 while RHB Banbk edge dup one sen to RM5. Maybank fell four sen to RM7.97.
Axiata rose five senb to RM5.80 while Telekom and Digi were flat at RM6.80 and RM4.98 and Maxis fell four sen to RM6.33.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.3% to 16,869;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.73% to 22,932.51;
CSI 300 surged 3.01% to 3,393.42;
Shanghai’s Composite Index advanced 2.44% to 3,125.20;
Shenzhen Composite gained 2.51% to 2,023.24;
Hang Seng China Enterprise climbed 1.61% to 9,708.89;
Taiwan’s Taiex slipped 0.02% to 9,148.51 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index shed 0.01% to 2,867.21.
Spot gold rose US$4.42 to US$1,340.39.
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