KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia joined the key Asian markets to climb higher at midday on Monday underpinned by a recovery in investor confidence while the ringgit advanced against the US dollar.
At 12.30pm, the KLCI was up 10.69 points or 0.58% to 1,847.70. Turnover was 1.17 billion shares valued at RM796.73mil. There were 585 gainers, 242 losers and 305 counters unchanged.
The ringgit rose 0.22% to the US dollar to 3.8630.
China and Hong Kong stocks rallied on Monday as investors awaited fresh developments in the simmering trade spat between the US and China, and as a bounce in US stock futures soothed sentiment, Reuters reported.
Among the key Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.63%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 1.76%, Shanghai's Composite Index climbed 0.37% while Singapore's STI advanced 0.32%.
US light crude oil rose 25 cents to US$62.31 and Brent gained 27 cents to US$67.38.
Petronas Dagangan rose 98 sen to RM25.64 and Petronas Gas gained 24 sen to RM18.22. Refiners Hengyuan added 70 sen to RM9.05 and Petron 42 sen higher at RM8.84.
Aluminium for third month delivery on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.64% to US$33 to US$2,042 per tonne.
Press Metal
rose 38 sen to RM4.23 in active trade, riding on the rallies on the London aluminium on concerns of sanctions by the US on aluminium giant Rusal could tighten supplies.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM22 to RM2,483 per tonne. PPB Group fell six sen to RM18.70 and KL Kepong six sen lower at RM25.50.
As for consumers, Dutch Lady added 66 sen to RM66.60 and Nestle gained 30 sen to RM149.30 and F&N 26 sen up to RM32.86.
Globetronics added 32 sen to RM4.21 while George Kent gained 22 sen to RM3.75.
MyEG fell nine sen to RM2.70 as CIMB Equities Research downgraded it from Add to Hold while maintaining the target price of RM3.04 as all the good news have been priced in.
