In a statement, CIMB Bank said the financing would be offered at a lower interest rate, flexible payment period and interest servicing up to six months, to help SMEs manage cash flow.
KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips extended their gains on Wednesday on some fund buying of IHH Healthcare, CIMB and MISC amid a firmer broader market.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was up 10.57 points or 0.65% to 1,638.01. Turnover was high at 4.38 billion shares valued at RM2.84bil. Advancers beat deciners 598 to 328 while 422 counters were unchanged.
Key Asian markets were mixed as Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.27%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.53% but China's Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.28% and Singapore's STI edged up 0.05%.
The ringgit fell against the US dollar but was firmer against the pound sterling, euro and Singapore unit. It shed 0.05% against the greenback to 4.1300 but rose 0.42% to the pound at 5.3406; climbed 0.25% to the euro at 4.6323 and edged up 0.08% to the Singapore dollar at 3.0395.
US light crude oil fell 29 cents to US$66.01 and Brent lost 15 cents to US$74.36. Petronas Chemical rose eight sen to RM9.03, Dialog added eight sen to RM3.28 while Petronas Gas and Petronas Dagangan added two sen each to RM17.66 and RM24.16. Yinson
rose 18 sen to RM4.83.
IHH rose nine sen to RM5.61 and pushed the KLIC up 1.37 points, Tenaga closed six sen higher at RM12.34, Genting five sen to RM6.86 and GentingM two sen to RM3.21 while Sime Darby ended one sen higher at RM2.35.
CIMB was up eight sen to RM5.25 and nudged the index up 1.33 points while RHB Bank, Public Bank and AmBank added four sen each to RM5.79, RM22.64 and RM4.50 respectively but Maybank shed two sen to RM9.14.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM23 to RM2,147 per tonne. FGV rose five sen to RM1.31 on positive news flow. IOI Corp added seven sen to RM4.49, Sime Plantation five sen to RM5.09, PPB Group and KL Kepong six sen each to RM18.72 and RM24.66.
MISC was up 17 sen to RM6.76 and gave the index a 1.32 point boost. It is looking at a stronger performance this year and in 2020, as its past projects begin contributing to its bottomline and it also anticipated better market conditions.
Its president and CEO Yee Yang Chien said MISC is expecting a “big jump” in 2020 as five shuttle tankers are commissioned for a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) project, and begin contributing to its revenue. “We are hoping for an at least 20% jump in our net operating cashflow in 2020, compared to 2018,” he said.
Bumi Armada rose seven sen to 27 sen with 774 million shares done after it refinanced its unsecured term loans of US$380mil (RM1.57bil) and revolving credit facilities of US$280mil (RM1.16bil) into a single facility consisting of Tranche 1 facility of US$260mil, and Tranche 2 facility of US$400mil (the loans).
Ekovest managed to stage a rebound, up 6.5 sen to 93.5 sen and IWCity added one sen to RM1.19.
Maxis shed two sen to RM5.32 but Digi added two sen to RM4.51 and Axiata six sen higher at RM3.93.
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