KUALA LUMPUR: The rally in global stock markets ended on a mixed note on Thursday as investors looked past the temporary relief of a US rebound.
Chinese markets in particular pulled back following released data that showed its industrial sector experienced a slump in profits for the first time in three years while news broke that China's state-owned Sinopec had suspended two top executives.
Shanghai's Composite Index was down 0.6% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shaved 0.7%.
Japan's Nikkei showed the most gains in the region with a 3.9% advance to move out of bear territory, while South Korea's Kospi ended marginally higher. In Southeast Asia, Singapore's Straits Times rose 1.2%
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan rose 0.6%.
The equities rally offered some support to the oil market, resulting in more than 8% increases in both the US and international benchmarks. However, investors were quick to cash in on the reprieve as concerns over global demand remain.
WTI crude was down 42 cents to US$45.80 a barrel while Brent crude fell 58 cents to US$53.89 a barrel
Back home, the FBM KLCI was one of the strong performers, rising 18.12 points to 1,690.72. Turnover was 1.61 billion shares valued at RM1.21bil. Market breadth was positive, 595 to 221, with 314 counters unchanged.
Twenty-six of the 30 constituent KLCI stocks advanced, while three declined and one remained unchanged.
Leading the advance was Petronas Chemicals gaining 17 sen to RM9.36 and Sime Darby Plantation
rising 17 sen to RM4.78. Hong Leong Bank rounded out the top three gainers with a 52 sen increase to RM20.72.
Telcos Digi and Maxis also lifted, by 12 sen and 11 sen respectively to RM4.49 and RM5.35.
The declining counters were KL Kepong, shaving six sen to RM24.14, Petronas Dagangan losing six sen to RM26.14 and Hap Seng Consolidated edging down one sen to RM9.85.
Top active counters were Hibiscus climbing four sen to 81.5 sen, MyEG rising 3.5 sen to 96.5 sen and Prestariang gaining two sen to 42.5 sen.
On the forex market, the ringgit climbed against some key currencies, rising 0.15% against the US dollar to 4.17, 0.4% against the pound sterling to 5.2787 and 0.3% against the Singapore dollar to 3.0368.
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