KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of banks, Petronas-linked stocks and Press Metal
saw the FBM KLCI closing at an all-time high of 1,895.18 ahead of the General Election 14 on May 9.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 15.86 points or 0.84% to 1,895.18. The highest was on July 10, 2014 when the 30-stock index closed at 1,892.62.
The broader market was slightly firmer with 505 gainers, 374 losers and 413 counters unchanged. Turnover was 2.52 billion shares valued at RM2.68bil.
Underpinning the KLCI's jump were the surge in oil prices, benefiting oil and gas players while the jump in aluminium prices helped drive Press Metal higher.
Analysts expected the market to rally ahead of the GE14 before tapering off. However, the other fundamentals supporting the surge were commodities.
On the external front, Hong Kong stocks ended higher, led by energy shares, after oil prices hit their highest since late 2014 as U.S. crude inventories declined and as top exporter Saudi Arabia pushes for higher rates by continuing to withhold supplies. The Hang Seng index ended 1.4% higher at 30,708.44, while the China Enterprises Index closed up 2.1% at 12,239.84.
At Bursa, Public Bank rose 24 sen to RM24.24 and pushed the KLCI up 1.67 points, Maybank added eight sen to RM10.68 and nudged the index up 1.57 points while Hong Leong Bank rose 34 sen to RM19.60 and lifted the index 1.32 points. RHB Bank gained three sen to RM5.41 , Ambank four sen to RM3.92 and CIMB one sen to RM7.31.
US light crude oil gained 57 cents to US$69.04 and Brent added 65 cents to US$74.13.Talk that Saudi Arabia has its sights on U$80-US$100 a barrel oil again ignited a fierce rally in commodities and resource stocks on Thursday, though the potential boost to inflation globally put some pressure on fixed-income assets, Reuters reported.
Petronas Dagangan jumped 84 sen to RM27.70 and added 1.5 points while Petronas Chemicals rose three sen to RM8.48. Petronas Gas added six sen to RM18.58.
Press Metal advanced 20 sen to RM5.23, underpinned by the rally in aluminium prices. Third month alunimum prices on the London Metal Exchange jumped 5.5% or US$132 to US$2,537 per tonne.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM3 to RM2,411 per tonne. PPB Group saw its shares swept up byt the optimisimg, despite the decine in CPO prices, adancing 48 sen to RM19.10, KL Kepong gained four sen to RM25.54 and IOI Corp was flat at RM4.79.
Sime Plantations was unchanged at RM5.60, Sime Darby added two sen to RM2.81 and Sime Property one sen higher at RM1.41.
Power giant Tenaga rose eight sen to RM16, Genting Bhd fell two sen to RM9.05 and Genting Malaysia three sen lower at RM5.14 while IHH added two sen to RM6.10.
The ringgit fell 0.03% to the US dollar at 3.8905 but advanced 0.12% to thepound sterling to 5.5152. It shed 0.02% to the euro to 4.8099 and was down 0.16% to the Singapore dollar at 2.9707.
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