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: Petronas-linked stocks and Tenaga Nasional powered the FBM KLCI to a higher close on Monday as investor sentiment perked up on expectations of little impact of US trade measures on China.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 12.70 points or 0.69% to 1,849.71. Turnover was 2.22 billion shares valued at RM2.10bil. There were 702 gainers, 249 losers and 355 counters unchanged.
The ringgit edged up 0.03% to the US dollar to 3.8702 but weakened against the pound sterling by 0.68% to 5.4598 and lost 0.26% to the euro at 4.7497 and was down 0.31% down to the Singapore dollar at 2.9455.
Global stocks rose on Monday as the US government played down fears of a trade war with China that has roiled markets over the last week. Key Asian markets closed higher with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index up 1.29%.
The two countries have threatened each other with tens of billions of dollars of tariffs, but officials in President Donald Trump's administration have stressed the tariffs are not yet in place and the dispute could be resolved through talks, Reuters reported.
US light crude oil rebounded 26 cents to US$62.32 and Brent added 38 cents to US$67.49.
Petronas Chemicals rose 28 sen to RM8.48 and powered the KLCI up 3.70 points. Petronas Dagangan gained 64 sen to RM25.30 and Petronas Gas gained 22 sen to RM18.29. Refiners Hengyuan climbed 71 sen to RM9.06 and Petron gained 33 sen to RM8.75.
Tenaga Nasional gained 14 sen to RM15.88 and added 1.31 points to the KLCI, Genting Bhd
gained 17 sen to RM8.90 and Genting Malaysia six sen to RM4.94.
As for consumer stocks, Dutch Lady was the top gainer, up RM1.14 to RM67.08, Nestle gained 60 sen to RM149.60 but BAT fell 16 sen to RM23.58.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM28 to RM2,477 per tonne. PPB Group was the top loser, down 34 sen to RM18.42, NSOP lost 11 sen to RM3.55, IOI Corp lost one sen to RM4.69 butKL Kepong rose two sen to RM25.58.
Sime Plantation rose two sen to RM5.52, Sime Darby added one sen to RM2.61 and Sime Property three sen higher to RM1.42.
George Kent was up 32 sen to RM3.85, riding on the growing confidence in securing more projects, especially the light rail transit and other rail jobs.
Press Metal rebounded 53 sen to RM4.38 on expectations that the US move to put a squeeze on Russia's Rusal could tighten aluminium supply.
Among the banks, Hong Leong Bank added 10 sen to RM18.70, RHB Bank gained seven sen to RM5.17, Public Bank was flat at RM23.94, Maybank fell two sen to RM10.46 and CIMB shed four sen to RM7.02.
MyEG fell 16 sen to RM2.63 in active trade. CIMB Equities Research has downgraded My EG Services from Add to Hold while maintaining the target price of RM3.04. It said MyEG’s share price has outperformed both the KLCI and the KLSE Technology Index so far this year.
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