KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI ended the day higher on Thursday, in line with the positive performance of regional bourses.
The benchmark index gained 4.26 points, or 0.3% to 1,424.61, with 20 out of the 30 constituent counters chalked up gains. This month, the index fell about 2%.
In the wider market, gainers outnumbered decliners 479 to 381, with 3.31 billion shares worth RM1.63bil changing hands.
Chin Hin Group
was the top gainer, rising 31 sen to RM4.55, followed by Malaysian Pacific Industries, which climbed 30 sen to RM29 and United Plantations, which rose 28 sen to RM16.48.
Among the losers, Far East eased 25 sen to RM3.55, PPB fell 16 sen to RM17.12, Harrisons slid 15 sen to RM8.65 and MR DIY declined 12 sen to RM1.53.
Sapura Energy fell 0.5 sen to 3.5 sen with 131.97 million shares traded.
The oil and gas services provider announced a smaller net loss of RM3.3bil against RM6.77bil, or 42.37 sen posted in the same quarter last year. Revenue for the quarter more than doubled to RM1.22bil from RM426.6mil a year ago.
Bintai Kinden lost two sen, or 33.33% to four sen with 81.71 million shares done following news the company had slipped into Practice Note 17 (PN17) status.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was quoted at 4.4190, down 0.02% against the US dollar.
US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 64 cents to US$73.61 and Brent added 52 cents to US$78.80 per barrel.
SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes thinks markets are getting into end-of-month rebalancing mode, which could make the price action somewhat random over the next 36 hours.
“Still, generally, we should expect, at a minimum, some trend reversal on profit-taking to pad the month-end books after most traders got hit with the ugly stick in March. But don’t count on that, as this market has become one big revolving dichotomy,” he said.
On the external front, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was higher by 0.55%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.36% to 27,782.93 while South Korea’s Kospi closed up 0.38% at 2,453.16.
China’s CSI 300 Index rose 0.81% to 4,038.53 while the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.65% to end at 3,261.25.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed up 0.58% at 20,309.13.
