KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of bank stocks pushed the FBM KLCI to a firmer close on Thursday, making the FBM KLCI the second best performer among the key Asian markets.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 11.07 points or 0.59% to 1,876.87. Turnover was 2.29 billion shares valued at RM2.06bil. There were 365 gainers, 518 losers and 405 counters unchanged.
The ringgit firmed up against the US dollar, up 0.31% to 3.9135 but fell 0.62% against the pound sterling to 5.5375 and lost 0.28% versus the euro to 4.8295 and shed 0.05% to the Singapore dollar at 2.9771.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was the best pefromer, up nearly 1% but Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.09% Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.53% and Singapore's STI was in the red with a 0.56% loss.
At Bursa Malaysia, foreign funds had been the net buyers over the past three days while local institutions were net sellers.
Maybank rose 26 sen to RM10.54 and pushed the KLCI up 5.08 points, Public Bank gained 36 sen to RM24.04, Hong Leong Bank 52 sen to RM19.22 while AmBank added two sen to RM4.18. RHB Bank and CIMB shed one sen each to RM5.40 and RM7.29.
Nestle was the top performer, surging RM9.20 to RM141.80 and pushing the KLCI up 3.87 point while F&N gained RM1.30 to RM33.40 and BAT 18 sen up to RM28.14. Dutch Lady
lost 22 sen tp RM66.48.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery shed RM1 to RM2,447 per tonne. PPB Group rose 14 sen to RM18.92, IOI Corp eight sen to RM4.75 and KL Kepong four sen higher at RM25.50.
Sime Plantations eked out a omne sen gain to RM5.60, Sime Darby was flat at RM2.62 while Sime Property fell three sen to RM1.42.
Concern about a trade war between the world's two largest economies also put commodity markets on guard, Reuters reported.
US light crude oil retreated 34 sen to US$64.83 and Brent lost 51 sen to US$68.96. Hengyuan fell 17 sen to RMRM8.23 and Petron one sen higher at RM9.39.
Petronas Dagangan lost 16 sen to RM24.80, Petronas Chemicals eight sen lower at RM8.21 while Petronas Gas was flat at RM18.
Sapura Energy rose 2.5 sen to 54 sen with 260 million shares as investors were upbeat about its fresh prospects. UMW OG and Hibiscus gained 0.5 sen each to 31 sen and 84.5 sen.
Tech-related stocks fell with Globetronics down 22 sen to RM4.66, KESM 18 sen lower at RM19.80 and Vitrox 14 sen to RM5.56.
AirAsia fell 13 sen to RM3.93 as investors took profit after the rally in recent weeks.
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