KUALA LUMPUR: The local bourse bucked the regional trend as Asian markets fell on Tuesday after three consecutive sessions of gains, on news that US borrowing costs would likely increase following the two-day Fed meeting that ends on Wednesday.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was 1.58 points higher at 1,721.05 points. Turnover was 1.01 billion shares with a value of RM927.25mil. There were 280 advancers versus 282 decliners with 497 counters unchanged.
On the KLCI, banking counter Public Bank rose eight sen to RM20.10, while CIMB Group
gained five sen to RM6 and Hong Leong Financial Group gained 18 sen to RM16.98.
Genting Malaysia added eight sen to RM5.37.
Among telcos, Digi rose five sen to RM4.74, Axiata put on one sen to RM5.37 and while Maxis lost one sen to RM5.94.
Petronas-related counters were on the rise with Petronas Chemicals gaining one sen to RM7.42 and Petronas Gas adding four sen to RM16.08.
Declining stocks included Tenaga Nasional, which dropped four sen to RM15.46, Hong Leong Bank, which lost four sen to RM16.32, and IOI, which fell one sen to RM4.46.
OldTown Bhd was on investors' radar screens on Tuesday as it was announced that Dutch company Jacobs Douwe Egberts Holdings Asia NL BV launched a takeover of the cafe company for RM1.47bil or RM3.18 a share. The counter rose 21 sen to RM3.09.
Another stock in focus on Bursa Malaysia was Pos Malaysia, which fell 27 sen or 5% on news that its CEO Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh was resigning from his post effective Dec 31, as he pursues a career change. Year-to-date, the stock has risen about 36%.
Meanwhile, loss-making Sapura Energy continued to trend towards new historical lows, losing three sen to 82 sen.
Top gaining counters on the market included Padini, which rose 32 sen to RM5.44, Kossanm which gained 17 sen to RM7.58 and Perak Corp, which added 11 sen to RM1.38.
Lagging counters included LPI, losing 20 sen to RM18.08 and Carlsberg, dropping 18 sen to RM15.
In oil markets, Brent crude rose above US$65 a barrel for the first time since 2015, rising 66 cents to US$65.35 a barrel while Us light crude gained 29 cents to US$58.28 a barrel as the Forties North Sea pipeline shut down and disrupted supply to the market.
The pipeline is Britain's largest and is expected to be shut down for several weeks following the discovery of a hairline crack.
In currencies, the ringgit was relatively unchanged against a strengthening greenback, falling 0.09% to 4.0800. It weakened 0.19% against the pound sterling at 5.4425 and was marginally weaker against the Singapore dollar at 3.0189.
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