KUALA LUMPUR: Late fund buying of Maybank, CIMB and Petronas Chemicals enabled the FBM KLCI to close markedly higher on Thursday amid a strong broader market while the ringgit strengthened against some major currencies.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 4.56 points or 0.27% to 1,690.91 on late support. Turnover was 1.71 billion shares valued at RM1.81bil. There were 441 gainers, 355 losers and 353 counters unchanged.
The ringgit strengthened against the US dollar, pound sterling and Singapore dollar.
The local unit was at 4.0960 to the greenback from 4.1263 the previous day and it was at 5.8246 to the pound from 5.8721 while it firmed up against the Singapore dollar to 2.9669 from 2.9829.
Aside from banks, trading interest was seen in plantations and also glove makers.
Maybank rose eight sen to RM8.78 and added 1.33 points to the KLCI, CIMB six sen to RM4.63, Public Bank four sen to RM18.64, Hong Leong Bank two sen to RM13.20, AmBank one sen to RM4.54 while RHB Cap slipped two sen to RM5.73.
Oil prices dipped on Thursday after US crude hit 2016 highs the day before and Brent shot back over US$40 per barrel, with analysts warning that larger gains would be unwarranted as a global glut continues to outweigh strong demand, Reuters reported..
US light crude oil fell nine cents to US$38.20 and Brent lost 26 cents to US$40.81.
Petronas Chemicals rose 10 sen to RM6.83 and nudged the KLCI up 1.36 points. However, Petronas Gas fell two sen to RM22.28, Petronas Dagangan six sen to RM24.58 and SK Petro one sen to RM2.11.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM11 to RM2,546 per tonne. Bloomberg reported palm oil inventories in Malaysia dropped to the lowest in eight months after dry spells triggered by the strongest El Nino in almost two decades cut output in the
world’s second-largest grower.
However, the decline was less than analysts forecast. This gave investors an excuse to take profit, with PPB Group down 20 sen to RM16.40, IJM Plantations 12 sen to RM3.58, KL Kepong two sen to RM23.98 while Sime Darby was flat at RM7.85 and IOI Corp was up five sen to RM4.82.
UMW was up 26 sen to RM7.13 and it was the top performer among the KLCI stocks. Power giant Tenaga Nasional added two sen to RM13.30 but MISC fell three sen to RM8.82 and Genting Bhd
two sen lower at RM8.66.
As for telcos, Maxis rose two sen to RM6.32, Digi and Axiata were fl;at at RM4.94 and RM6 while TM shed one sen to RM6.54.
Glove makers attracted strong positive interest again, with Kossan up 30 sen to RM6.50, Top Glove 24 sen to RM5.39 and Hartalega 15 sen higher at RM4.65.
AirAsia rose one sen to RM1.74 in active trade but AAX lost 0.5 sen to 29.5 sen and its warrants one sen lower at 17.5 sen.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.26% to 16,852.35;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index she d0,06% to 19,984.42;
Shanghai’s Composite Index lost 2.02% to 2,804.73;
Taiwan’s Taiex rise 0.31% to 8,660.70;
South Korea’s Kospi added 0.84% to 1,969.33; and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.27% to 2,802.86.
Spot gold fell US$3.33 to US$1,249.90.
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