KUALA LUMPUR: Key Asian markets rebounded on Tuesday as worries about a US trade war eased while at Bursa Malaysia, Nestle and Public Bank hit record levels again on fund buying.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 5.75 points or 0.31% to 1,848.37. Turnover was 2.77 billion shares valued at RM2.78bil. There were 529 gainers, 438 losers and 406 counters unchanged.
The ringgit rose 0.08% to the US dollar to 3.9035 and advanced 0.09% against the Singapore dollar to 2.9581. However, it eased 0.07% to the pound sterling to 5.3970 and shed 0.05% to the euro at 4.8172.
On the external front, Hong Kong shares rebounded sharply on Tuesday, as Asian markets regained ground amid signs US President Donald Trump is facing growing pressure from political allies to pull back from proposed steel and aluminium tariffs.
The Hang Seng index rose 2.1%, to 30,527.34, while the China Enterprises Index gained 2.8% to 12,325.43.
At Bursa Malaysia, furniture maker Wegmans ended its first trading day at 29.5 sen, up 0.5 sen. It was actively traded with 82.8 million shares done.
As for consumer stocks, Nestle surged RM9.10 to RM137 with 485,800 shares and powered the KLCI up 3.82 points.
Heineken added 52 sen to RM21.74 and Carlsberg 32 sen to RM19.20. F&N gained eight sen to RM30.74. However, Dutch Lady fell RM1 to RM66.98.
Among the banks, Public Bank ended up 10 sen to RM23, off the record intra-day high of RM23.16. Maybank closed the day up eight sen to RM10.50 and HL Bank advanced 12 sen to RM18.82, CIMB was flat at RM7.20, RHB Bank shed one sen to RM5.39 and AmBank two sen lower to RM4.04.
As for telcos, fund buying saw Maxis climbing 21 sen to RM5.91 and adding 2.93 points to the KLCI, Axiata was up three sen to RM5.40 but Digi shed one sen to RM4.74 and Telekom lost 10 sen to RM5.62.
Press Metal rebounded 21 sen to RM5.18 and its warrants WC added 19 sen to RM4.67 as Trump's steel tariffs threat eased. Ann Joo rose 15 sen to RM3.47.
Inari jumped 17 sen to RM3.21 as analysts remained about the technology company's products.
US light crude oil fell 10 sen to RM62.47 and Brent fell 20 sen to RM65.34. Petronas Dagangan fell 32 sen to RM25.18, Petronas Gas was flat at RM17.62 while Petronas Chemicals edged up one sen to RM7.98.
Hengyuan fell 20 sen to RM10.18 but Petron eked out a one sen gain to RM9.73 as the earlier rally faded.
Pos Malaysia fell 12 sen to RM3.69 as concerns about its courier business weighed again.
Crude palm oil rose RM17 to RM2,480 per tonne. IOI Corp rose three sen to RM4.81, KL Keping and PPB Group were flat at RM25.40 and RM18.08.
Sime Plantations fell one sen to RM5.51, Sime Darby lost three sen to RM2.62 and Sime Property rose two sen to RM1.42.
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