For April, the 30-stock index was up 9.46 points or 0.58% from a month ago.
KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of Public Bank, Petronas Gas and Axiata pushed the FBM KLCI to the highest close in more than three weeks while a turnaround in Telekom Malaysia saw the shares soaring in very active trade.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 12.83 points or 0.79% to 1,636,50 which was the highest since May 8. The KLCI is still down 3.2% year-to-date while Jakarta's Composite fell 1.46% and South Korea 0.11%.
Turnover was moderate with 2.47 billion shares done valued at RM2.67bil. The broader market was firmer with 513 gainers, 366 losers and 334 counters unchanged.
On the external front, Hong Kong stocks closed at a four-month low as Beijing stepped up its rhetoric amid a festering trade dispute with Washington, Reuters reported.
The Hang Seng index ended down 0.4% at 27,114, its lowest closing level since Jan 24, while the China Enterprises Index closed up 0.6% at 10,450. China's blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.6%, to 3,641, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3% to 2,905.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.29% and Singapore's STI lost 0.86% but Taiwan'sTaiex added 0.79%, South Korea's Kospi advanced 0.77%.
At Bursa, aside from Public Bank, which pushed the KLCI up 4.08 points, the other six counters which notched steady gains were GLC-related stocks. They were Petronas Gas, Axiata, CIMB, MISC, Petronas Dagangan and Tenaga.
Telekom was the top gainer of the day, surging 74 sen to RM3.46 with 96.4 million shares done after its net profit almost doubled in the fist quarter ended March 31, 2019 to RM308.28mil from RM157.15mil a year ago mainly due to a reduction in operating costs.
Axiata rose 15 sen to RM4.65 and added 2.39 points, Maxis added five sen to RM5.58 while Digi was unchanged at RM4.81.
US light crude oil rose 33 cents to US$59.14 but Brent shed seven sen to US$69.38. Petronas Gas rose 74 sen to RM17.56 added 2.56 points to the KLCI. Petronas Dagangan was 52 sen higher at RM25.32 but Petronas Chemical lost 10 sen to RM8.24. Dialog was unchanged at RM3.30.
AirAsia rose to a high of RM3.05 before ending the day at RM2.85, up 22 sen. This was the highest since May 13.
Among the banks, Public Bank closed up 60 sen to a two month high of RM23.60, CIMB six sen to RM5.21, AmBank 12 sen to RM4.48, HL Bank 14 sen to RM18.72, RHB Bank was unchanged at RM5.74 but Maybank shed four sen to RM9.01.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM27 to RM2,078 per tonne. PPB Group rose 18 sen to RM18.80, KL Kepong 12 sen to RM24.32, IOI Corp was flat at RM4.22 but Sime Plantation fell six sen to RM4.56.
Power giant Tenaga continued its upward trend, up eight sen to RM12.40, MAHB 12 sen to RM7.12 and GentingM and Genting three sen to RM3.13 and RM6.36.
The ringgit rose 0.04% against the US dollar to 4.1923, added 0.14%to the pound sterling to 5.2989 and advanced 0.2% versus the euro at 4.6724 but slipped 0.21% to the Singapore unit at 3.0412.
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