KUALA LUMPUR: Banking stocks and Tenaga Nasional shored up the FBM KLCI on Thursday as sentiment perked up despite the mixed signals from the key Asian markets and the weaker overnight close on Wall Street.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.66 points or 0.15% to 1,741.61 – thanks to gains in RHB Bank, Tenaga, Maybank and AmBank.
Turnover was conservative at 2.64 billion shares valued at RM2.24bil. The broader market improve with 498 gainers, 368 losers and 395 stocks unchanged.
Hong Kong stocks rebounded modestly on Thursday along with global equity markets, though gains were capped by uncertainty over the French presidential election at the weekend and tensions with North Korea, Reuters reported. Lower oil prices also dragged on shares of energy companies.
On the current market sentiment, the head of research at a financial services company said the markets were treading “on thin ice” at the moment.
He said it was crucial to look at whether or not the Standard and Poors 500 breaks down as this would be an early sign to trigger a a global sell
“So far, the DJIA has cracked but the S&P 500 not quite yet. Time to be very cautious,” he told StarBiz.
The ringgit rose 0.03% against the US dollar at 4.3995 from 4.4006 the previous day. However, it slipped against the pound sterling, down 0.14% to 5.6466 – the weakest since Dec 6, 2016 – from 5.6388 the previous day.
It fell 0.08% against the Singapore dollar to 3.1495 from 3.1471 and weakened sharply by 0.53% versus the euro to 4.7387 from 4.7140.
Among the banks, RHB Bank rose 16 sen to RM5.28 – the highest since March 28 – and pushed the KLCI up 1.09 points. AmBank added 10 sen to RM5.03 – the highests since August 2015. Maybank added three sen to RM9.08, CIMB two sen to RM5.50 while Public Bank and Hong Leong Bank were flat at RM19.92 and RM13.70.
Weighing down the KLCI were Petronas linked stocks despite the recovery on Thursday. US light crude oil rose 34 cents to US$50.78 and Brent 41 cents higher at US$53.34.
Petronas Gas fell 36 sen to RM18.34 and erased 1.21 points from the KLCI, Petronas Chemicals shed six sen to RM8.52 and wiped out 0.81 of a point while Petronas Daganagan lost eight sen to RM24.
Power giant Tenaga Nasional rose eight sen to RM13.80, Genting Bhd
was flat at RM9.70 and Genting Malaysia fell six sen to RM5.59.
As for telcos, Axiata added two sen to RM5.07, Digi and Telekom edged up one sen each to RM5.15 and RM6.46 while Maxis shed five sen to RM6.39.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery rebounded RM37 to RM2,502 per tonne. PPB Group and KL Kepong rose six sen each to RM16.90 and RM24.22 while IOI Corp added three sen to RM4.53 and Sime one sen higher at RM9.26.
Ajinomoto was the the top gainer, up 28 sen to RM17.78 with 1,500 shares done while Bat gained four sen to RM47.06 while Carlsberg lost 10 sen to RM14.86.
Tech-related stocks were mixed as Vitrox gained 26 sen to RM5.08 but KESM lost 28 sen to RM12.02 and MPI lost 12 sen to RM11.62.
Tile maker and construction player Seacera rallied 14 sen to RM1.29 with 21.4 million shares done while its warrants, WA jumped 10 sen to 22.5 sen in active trade.
SCC added 19 sen to RM1.89 on its proposed bonus issue and share split plan.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.01% to 18,430.49;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.97% to 24,056.98;
CSI 300 gained 0.46% to 3,462.09;
Shanghai’s Composite Index edged up 0.04% to 3,172.10;
Hang Seng China Enterprise gained 0.73% to 10,056.17;
Taiwan’s Taiex shed 0.08% to 9,632.69;
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.5% to 2,149.15 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 0.3% to 3,137.88.
Spot gold fell US$1.12 to US$1,279.09.
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