KUALA LUMPUR: The local bourse opened on a strong note on Monday amid strong economic data released by both the US and China. However, by midday, the FBM KLCI shaved gains to 0.65 points higher at 1,721.90 points.
Trading volume was lacklustre owing to the Selangor state holiday. Turnover was 812.08 million shares with a value of RM666.7mil. Market breadth was almost equal with 287 decliners to 279 gainers and 475 counters unchanged.
Hong Leong Bank pushed higher by 44 sen to RM16.44 while Genting Malaysia rose three sen to RM5.28.
Petronas Chemicals gained two sen to RM7.44 while Petronas Gas added six sen to RM16.06.
The leading decliners included IHH Healthcare, which dropped two sen to RM5.64, Genting, which slipped four sen to RM8.75 and IOI, which fell three sen to RM4.46.
Among the Sime Darby counters, Sime Darby Plantation
continued to gain strength, rising seven sen to RM5.36, while Sime Darby Property rose 17 sen to RM1.45. Sime Darby, however, slipped one sen to RM2.17.
Oil refiners were among the stocks in investors' spotlights on Monday. Hengyuan rose 60 sen to RM11.88 and Petron Malaysia gained 36 sen to RM61.50.
Glovemakers were alo on the rise. Top Gove added 21 sen to RM6.61 while Hartalega gained 29 sen to RM9.48.
Among the leading laggards, Latitude Tree slipped 16 sen to RM4.13, A-Rank dropped 12.5 sen to 94.5 sen and United Malacca fell eight sen to RM6.50.
Meanwhile, in commodities, a rise in the number of US oil rigs pointed to a further increase in American production that could undermine Opec-led efforts to tighten markets, Reuters reported.
Us light crude dropped 20 cent sto US$57.16 a barrel while Brent crude shaved 23 cents to US$63.17 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit moved higher for its second consecutive session of gains following a correction earlier last week. The local currency strengthened 0.14% against the US dollar 4.0817 and 0.8% against the pound sterling at 5.4689. It weakened 0.03% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0200.
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