Bursa Malaysia ekes out slight gains early Thursday

KUALA LUMPUR:  Blue chips were slightly higher early Thursday, lagging behind the recovery of the key Asian markets as investors awaited signs for the General Election 14.

At 9.22am, the KLCI was up 1.45 points or 0.08% to 1,859.32. Turnover was 192.72 million shares valued at RM77.63mil. There were 174 gainers, 130 losers and 232 counters unchanged.

Asian stocks edged up and the safe haven yen was broadly lower against the dollar on Thursday amid perceived progress on North Korea issues, although equity gains were limited after a tech-led retreat on Wall Street, Reuters reported.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.05%. Australian stocks dipped 0.1%, Japan's Nikkei rose 1% and South Korea's KOSPI added 0.1%.

Nestle  rose 80 sen to RM150.50, KESM added 20 sen to RM19, MISC 10 sen to RM7.15 in thin trade.

LC Titan added nine sen while Hai-O and Hengyuan were up eight sen to RM5.08 and RM7.64. Favelle Favco and Petron rose seven sen each to RM2.60 and RM8.79.

Sapura Energy added two sen to 52 sen with 43.6 million shares done.

MPI fell 15 sen to RM8.70, PPB Group 14 sen to RM19.02 and Ajinomoto 10 sen down to RM22.