Late push takes KLCI 11 points higher

KUALA LUMPUR: After having spent most of the day in negative territory, a massive push in the final hour of the day's trade saw the FBM KLCI surge 11.71 points to 1,724.84 points.

Hong Leong Bank contributed much of the gains, rising RM1.70 to RM17 and adding 6.53 points to the index.

However, there were also notable gains in other KLCI counters including Maybank, which rose 13 sen to RM9.38, and Genting Malaysia, which put on 13 sen to RM5.13.

Maxis rose seven sen to RM5.90, Hong Leong Financial Group put on 54 sen to RM16.94 while Petronas Gas rose 16 sen to  RM16.10.

Tenaga Nasional gained six sen to RM15.64.

Among the decliners, Westports dropped 14 sen to RM3.44, YTL dipped one sen to RM1.15, Genting declined four sen to RM8.91 and MISC slipped one sen to RM7.08.

On the wider market, Petron Malaysia added 30 sen to RM11.54 and IJM gained 12 sen to RM3.02. 

Laggards included Top Glove , which shaved 20 sen to RM6.52, Allianz which lost 22 sen to RM13.08 and Kossan which dipped 26 sen to RM7.49.

Key Asian markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday, weighed down by investors' rotation out of tech stocks. 

At the close, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 6.58 points  at 3,303.04 while The blue-chip CSI300 index was up 21.31 points to 4,040.17 points.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 295.48 points at 28,842.80.

Taiwan's Taiex was down 84.26 points at 10,566.85 points.

Japan's Nikkei slipped 84.78 points with semi-conductor related counters leading losses.

Singapore's Straits Times Index was marginally lower at 3,438.06 points.

On the oil market, the commodity steadied above US$62 a barrel as expectation of a drop in US crude inventories and Opec's deal to extend supply cuts countered rising output in the US, Reuters reported.

US light crude rose 18 cents to US$57.28 a barrel while Brent crude gained eight cents to US$62.37 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit strengthened 0.09% against the greenback at 4.0665 and 0.27% against the pound sterling at 5.4454. 

It weakened 0.19% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0185.