KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Chemical and Tenaga Nasional underpinned the FBM KLCI at midday on Tuesday while key Asian markets eked small gains.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI rose 2.54 points or 0.14% to 1,774.16. Turnover was 932.17 million shares valued at RM667mil. There were 266 gainers, 281 losers and 482 counters unchanged.
Asian shares rose on Tuesday after modest gains on Wall Street, while robust metals prices underpinned some regional markets even as investors remained wary ahead of the annual central banking conference in Jackson Hole later this week, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan extended early gains and rose 0.7%.
The Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.2% while the blue-chip CSI300 index was up 0.4%. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan materials index was 1.1% higher, buoyed by spot price gains, Reuters said.
Petronas Chemical rose four sen to RM7.24 and pushed the KLCI up 0.52 of a point, Petronas Gas was flat at RM18.80 but Petronas Daganagan lost four sen to RM23.96.
Tenaga rose four sen to RM14.26 and nudged the KLCI up 0.37 of a point, MISC gained one sen to RM7.17, Genting Bhd
three sen to RM9.76 and Genting Malaysiua one sen higher at RM6.04.
As for banks, Hong Leong Bank added four sen to RM15.62, Maybank rose one sen to RM9.61 while Public Bank and CIMB were flat at RM16.64 and RM6.75.
Among the tech related stocks, KESM resumed its climb, up 28 sen to RM14.90, SAM 16 sen higher at RM7.40 while Dnex added two sen to 52 sen in active trade.
HL Industries, which swung into the red after impairments for its investments in Malaysian Newsprint Industry, rose 19 sen to RM9.85.
Pos Malaysia added 16 sen to RM5.47 after the strong set of results. Favourable outlook from analysts about Tune Protect saw the insurer jumping 10 sen to RM1.10.
As for Lotte Chemical Titan, it rose eight sen to RM5.43 while its call warrants were unchanged.
Among the consumer stocks, F&N and BAT fell 14 sen each to RM24.54 and RM44.16 while Kawan Food lost 10 sen to RM4.50.
Hartalega fell 11 sen to RM6.93. It has earmarked around RM300mil to RM400mil as capital expenditure for the financial year ending March 31, 2018.
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