Blue chips eke out slight gains as PGas, HL Bank climb

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips advanced in cautious trade early Thursday, underpinned by gains in Petronas Gas and Hong Leong Bank but overall investor sentiment remained cautious following the corporate results.

At 9.17am, the KLCI was up 2.32 points or 0.15% to 1,592.14. Turnover was 247.04 million shares valued at RM100mil. There were 164 gainers, 130 losers and 197 counters unchanged.

Global bond yields flirted with record low levels while stocks struggled to recover as economic turbulence from intensifying US-China frictions and the spectre of a no-deal Brexit drove investors to safer harbours, Reuters reported.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat in early trade while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.14%.

On the technical outlook, Kenanga Research said the underlying trend of the index remains bearish as the index remains below all its key-SMAs.

“However, we do not discount the possibility of a technical-rebound given that stochastic has been in oversold territory for a long period of around one month, ” it said.

Nestle rose 80 sen to RM147.80 with 200 shares done.

Petronas Gas gained 30 sen to RM15.94, KL Kepong 16 sen to RM23.64, HLFG 14 sen to RM16.18and HLBank eight sen to RM16.34.

Opcom continued to advanced but at a slower pace after Wednesday’s rally, up 2.5 sen to 66 sen.

StarBiz reported the Universal Service Provision (USP) fund will be tapped by the government to pay for the bulk of its RM21.6bil National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP).

Ranhill fell the most, down 28 sen to RM1.10, Telekom 24 sen to RM3.84, Allianz 10 sen to RM14.40 while Chin Well and CCM lost seven sen each to RM1.66 and RM1.81.

Source: TheStar