Bursa Malaysia joined the key Asian markets recovery as they notched gains of between 0.4% and 2.25% with Dialog, telcos, glove makers and Maybank underpinning the advance.
KUALA LUMPUR: Digi and Public Bank helped shore up the FBM KLCI at the close of trade on Monday, thanks to foreign fund buying while key Asian markets.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 1.55 points or 0.08% to 1,847.94. Turnover was 1.94 billion shares valued at RM1.67bil. There were 332 gainers, 574 losers and 402 counters unchanged.
Stock market data showed foreign funds were net buyers at RM121.80mil while local institutions were net sellers at RM103mil and retailers net sellers also at RM18.8mil.
Hong Kong stocks were barely changed on Monday as investors await Fed Chair Jerome Powell's first press conference on Wednesday amid expectations of a faster pace of US rate hike.
China stocks ended higher on Monday, with gains led by healthcare firms, after Beijing formed a new economic team.
The ringgit lost ground against the US dollar, down 0.25% to 3.9170 but advanced against the pound sterling, up 0.05% to 5.4625; climbed 0.21% against the euro to 4.8095 and edged up 0.3% to 2.9715.
Digi shored up the KLCI 0.83 point after it climbed six sen to RM4.60, Axiata added three sen to RM5.35, Telekom fell two sen to RM5.58 and Maxis one sen lower at RM5.76.
Public Bank rose 10 sen to RM23.12 mand nudged the KLCI up 0.7 of a point, CIMB edged up four sen to RM7.26, Hong Leong Bank eight sen to RM18.80, AmBank gained three sen to RM4.15, Maybank unchanged at RM10.32 while RHB Bank shed six sen to RM5.31.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM11 to RM2,427 per tonne.
As for plantations, IOI Corp rose three sen to RM4.61, KL Kepong added four sen to RM25.36 while PPB Group was flat at RM18.54.
US light crude fell 20 cents to US$62.14 and Brent was down 12 cents to US$66.09.
Among the oil and gas stocks, Hengyuan fell 39 sen to RM8.39 and Petron 34 sen to RM9.36, Petronas Gas 14 sen lower at RM17.86, Petronas Chemical and Petronas Dagangan were flat at RM8.15 and RM24.80. LC Titan bucked the trend to add 21 sen to RM6.40.
BAT was the top performer, up 32 sen to RM28. However, the others fell on extended selling with Nestle down RM1.40 to RM129.60, F&N 80 sen to RM31.02, Heineken 68 sen to RM20.72, Duitch Lady 30 sen to RM67.20 and Carlsberg 24 sen to RM18.80.
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