KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips snapped their 10 straight days of losses on Tuesday as fund buying was seen in Genting Malaysia and Petronas Gas but the broader market was mixed.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 4.89 points or 0.28% to 1,759.67 – down over 26 points from Sept 15's 1,786.33. Turnover was 2.17 billion shares valued at RM2.07bil. There were 388 gainers, 379 losers and 432 counters unchanged.
The ringgit weakened against the US dollar and the euro but advanced against the pound sterling and Singapore unit. It slipped 0.08% to the greenback to 4.2378 and shed 0.02% to the euro to 4.9732 but gained 0.41% to the pound to 5.6154 and inched up 0.09% toi the Singapore dollar to 2.10669.
Hong Kong stocks jumped on Tuesday, led by mainland banks after China's central bank cut reserve ratios and as materials shares found support from economic data out of Beijing that showed stronger-than-expected factory activity, Reuters reported.
At Bursa, the upbeat key Asian markets provided some lift to the KLCI after the selling pressure by foreign funds.
Genting Malaysia rose 17 sen to RM5.47 and pushed the KLCI up 1.72 points while Genting Bhd
added two sen to RM9.50.
US light crude oil shed five cents to US$50.53 and Brent dipped cents to US$56.06. Petronas Gas rose 18 sen to RM18.08, Petronas Dagangan four sen higher at RM24.26 but Petronas Chemicals shed one sen to RM7.29. Refiners Petron jumped to a record high of RM11.02 and Hengyuan 23 sen to RM8.30,
Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM12 to RM2,678 per tonne. As for plantations, KL Kepong rose 18 sen to RM24.80, IOI Corp added one sen to RM4.54 but PPB Group shed four sen to RM16.82. Heavyweight Sime Darby, which is spinning off its plantations and property units, rose four sen to RM9.04.
As for banks, AmBank rose nine sen to RM4.49, CIMB two sen to RM6.36, RHB Bank and Public Bank also rose two sen each to RM5.06 and RM20.60 while Maybank inched up one sen to RM9.56.
Hong Leong Bank was flat at RM15.86, Hong Leong Industries rose 31 sen to RM9.54, HLFG 31sen higher at RM16.80 and MPI 30 sen to RM14.14.
Telekom extended its losses, down two sen to RM14.30 and erased 0.32 of a point, Tenaga lost two sen to RM14.30, MISC two sen also RM7.26.
Cloudaron Group ended the first trading day on the LEAP Market up 50% or 5.5 sen to 16.5 sen with 315,000 shares done.
Magni-Tech put on solid gains, up 31 sen to RM7.15. Steel player Ann Joo gained 18 sen to RM3.73
Pharmaceutical company Kotra lost 13 sen to RM1.71.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 climed 1.05% to 20,614.07;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index surged 2.25% to 28,173.21;
Hang Seng China Enterprise jumped 3.62% to 11,305.38;
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.04% to 10,469.35;
South Korea’s Kospi added 0.9% to 2,394.47 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.65% to 3,240.88.
Spot gold fell 89 cents to US$1,270.24.
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