KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia halted its decline on Wednesday, in tandem with a technical rebound overnight on Wall Street that saw all three major indices partially erasing previous losses.
THe FBM KLCI moved higher 26.76 points by midday to 1,839.21. Turnover was 1.84 billion shares with a value of RM1.61bil. The retracement of market fortunes was see to be broad-based as there were 541 gainers versus 153 decliners and 607 counters unchanged.
Public Bank, which recouped yesterday's losses by adding 50 sen to RM21.98, lifting the index by over three points.
Maybank, which held relatively steady amid the two-day sell-off, also moved higher by 12 sen to RM10.12.
Other leading gainers were Tenaga Nasional, which rose 18 sen to RM15.76, Petronas Gas, which advanced 50 sen to RM17.62 and Maxis, which put on 12 sen to RM6.
Nestle continued its ascent, rising 90 sen to RM115.20.
Only three stocks on the 30-stock KLCI moved lower. These were Genting, slipping three sen to RM9.16; Petronas Chemicals, shaving one sen to RM7.99; and KLCC Property REIT, losing two sen to RM7.68.
Meanwhile, glove manufacturer Top Glove retraced losses, rising 48 sen to RM9.18, while Hartalega
moved 58 sen higher to RM11.42.
PMB Technology added 25 sen to RM4.14 and Petron Malaysia recouped 38 sen to RM11.60.
Among decliners, Aeon Credit dropped 20 sen to RM12.98, Litrak slipped 19 sen to RM5.62 and HeiTech Padu dipped seven sen to 68.5 sen.
The recovery in US stock market prices coupled with falling US inventory helped oil prices recover following its slide over recent days.
WTI crude rose 56 cents to US$63.95 a barrel while Brent crude added 52 cents to US$67.38 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit firmed up 0.21% against the US dollarto 3.9082 and 0.30% against the pound sterling at 5.4587. It was marginally lower against the Singapore dollar at 2.9667.
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