KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of key stocks Petronas Gas, IOI Corp, Hong

Leong Bank and Digi underpinned the FBM KLCI advance on Wednesday, in line
with the firmer key Asian markets despite worrries about the volatile US-China
ties.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 8.67 points or 0.55% to 1,574.90 on late buying
support. Turnover rose to 3.06 billion shares valued at RM2.23bil. The broader
market was mixed with 458 gainers, 426 losers and 378 counters unchanged.
US-China ties came into focus again as the yuan fell after Beijing criticised new
US legislation seen as supportive of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong,
Reuters reported.
Escalating trade tariffs from China and the United States over the past year has
forced central banks to start cutting interest rates as global growth expectations
have weakened.
At Bursa, which had seen it come under selling pressure from foreign funds this
year, managed to post some solid gains especially among the big capitalised
stocks. However, the weak ringgit has impacted risk appetite for equities.
Fitch Ratings said although the government's forecasts that GDP would increase
by 4.7% this year and 4.8% next year, the targets might be moderately optimistic.
However, Malaysia's well-diversified export base would help the economy
maintain a relatively strong growth despite global trade tensions, it said.
BAT was the top gainer after the recent upgrade by analysts, adding RM1.40 to
RM20.20 while F&N gained 56 sen to RM35.04, Nestle 40 sen higher at
RM144.40 and Heineken 18 sen to RM25.20.
US light crude oil fell 12 cents to US$52.69 and Brent 21 cents lower at
US$58.53.
Despite a decline in crude oil prices, Petronas Gas rose 40 sen to RM16.98 and
lifted the KLCI by 1.39 points, Petronas Chemicals added two sen to RM7.31
while Petronas Dagangan was flat at RM23.30. Dialog inched up one sen to
RM3.47.
YINSON
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, which resumed after two days for an announcement that it received two letters of
intent (LOI) from Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) with a value of US$5.4bil, ended
15 sen higher at RM6.99.
Crude palm oil for third month deivery rose RM38 to RM2,252 per tonne.
IOI Corp rose 11 sen to RM4.33 and added 1,22 points to the KLCI, KL Kepong
gained 18 sen to RM21.68, PPBN Group was flat at RM17.96 while Sime
Plantation gave up part of the previous day's gains, shedding five sen to RM4.80.
Among the banks, Hong Leong Bank boosted the KLCIby 1.14 points when it
rose 30 sen to RM16.84, SIMB added five sen to RM4.98, AmBank seven sen to
RM3.90. Maybank one sen to RM8.52 while Public Bank was flat at RM19.26.
Digi was the best performer among the telcos, up eight sen to RM4.71 and
added 1.1 points. Maxis added five sen to RM5.45 and Axiata was flat at
RM4.24.
The ringgit fell 0.06% against the US dollar to 4.1945, lost 0.8% to the pound
sterling to 5.3453 and shed 0.1% to 4.6294. However, it edged up 0.06% against
the Singapore dollar to 3.0564.

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