Bursa Malaysia joined the key Asian markets recovery as they notched gains of between 0.4% and 2.25% with Dialog, telcos, glove makers and Maybank underpinning the advance.
KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed off their day's best on Thursday on late selling amid declining trading volume but some fund support was seen for Petronas Gas and Axiata
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 2.76 points or 0.15% to 1,839.44. Turnover was conservative at 2.05 billion shares valued at RM2.08bil compared with the previous days this week.
The broader market was firmer with 577 gainers, 365 losers and 375 counters unchanged.
The US dollar strengthened against the basket of currency, up 0.21% to 90.445. This saw the ringgit weakened 0.46% to the US dollar to 3.9268.
However, the ringgit rose 0.19% to the pound sterling at 5.4385 and gained 0.61% to the euro at 4.8058 and climbed 0.35% to 2.9543.
Hong Kong stocks regained some composure on Thursday after a brutal sell-off earlier in the week, with the benchmark Hang Seng Index ending the session slightly higher following five consecutive days of losses, Reuters reported.
At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 0.42% at 30,451.27. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 0.43% to 12,380.38.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.13%, Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.42% and South Korea's Kospi 0.46% up.
US light crude oil fell 33 cents to US$61.46 and Brent was down 34 cents to US$65.17.
At Bursa Malaysia, Petronas Gas rose 38 sen to RM18 and boosted the KLCI 1.34 points, Petronas Dagangan lost12 sen to RM24.52 and Petronas Chemicals three sen to RM7.96. Hengyuan added 52 sen to RM13.20 while Petron lost four sen to RM11.22.
Axiata rose eight sen to RM5.48 and nudged the KLCI up 1.29 points, Digi gained three sen to RM4.86 and Telekom two sen lower at RM5.96.
Maxis, which recorded its highest profit after tax in four years, came under some profit taking, down thee sen to RM6.07.
Westports, which reported a 36% increase in the fourth quarter earnings to RM210.98mil, rose 21 sen to RM3.54.
MISC rose 12 sen to RM7.29, Tenaga fell four sen to RM15.80, while Genting Bhd
shed four sen also to RM9. Genting Malaysia was 11 sen lower at RM5.34
Among the banks, Public Bank edged up four sen to RM21.98, Maybank and CIMB gained two sen each to RM10.08 and RM7.10, RHB Bank one sen higher at RM5.21 while Hong Leong Bank, and AmBank were flat at RM18 and RM4.45.
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