KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips staged a rebound to close higher, shored up by Sime Plantation and Public Bank and powering the FBM KLCI above the 1,650 level but oil stocks fell.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 20.35 points or 1.24% to 1,655.66, snapping several days of losses.
Turnover was1.87 billion shares valued at RM1.89bil. There were 502 gainers, 329 losers and 322 counters unchanged.
Key Asian markets were mostly higher with Jakarta up 1.46%, Thailand's SET 0.9%, Singapore's STI 0.47% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index up 0.2%. However, Shanghai Composite fell 1.05% and Nikkei 225 lower by 0.6%.
Crude plam oil for third month delivery rose RM19 to RM2,174 per tonne. Sime Plantation gained 33 sen to RM4.42 and pushed the KLIC up 3.97 points, PPB Group 10 sen to RM16.90, KL Kepong eight sen to RM24 and IOI Corp two sen to RM4.28.
Public Bank gained 40 sen to RM24.66 and lifted the KLCI up 2.74 point, Maybank added 11 sen to RM9.33, CIMB seven sen to RM5.70, RHB Bank and HL Bank two sen each to RM5.22 and RM20.32.
IHH climbed 17 sen to RM5.36 and pushed the index up 2.63 points, Genting Malaysia advanced 23 sen to RM3.06 and Genting Bhd
30 sen to RM6.33.
Tenaga snapped its losing streak to advance 14 sen to RM12.84.
US light crude oil recovered to climb 21 cents to US$46.45 and Brent added 37 cents to US$56.63.
Dialog fell 20 sen to RM2.75 and erased nerly two points from the KLCI. Petronas Dagangan fell 12 sen to RM25.60, Petronas Gas eight sen to RM19.20 and Petronas Chemical two sen to RM9.13.
As for telcos, Maxis climbed 19 sen to RM5.47 and gave the KLCI a 2.62 point lift, Axiata six sen to RM3.86, Digi rose three sen to RM4.41 but Telekom shed two sen to RM2.58.
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