PChem, Public Bank lead blue chips higher

KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Chemicals and Public Bank underpinned the FBM KLCI’s early advance on Tuesday in line with the cautious Asian markets.

At 9.09am, the KLCI was up 3.9 points or 0.25% to 1,562.90. Turnover was 182.62 million shares valued at RM69.25mil. There were 175 gainers, 73 losers and 164 counters unchanged.

Asian shares inched up in early trade, with investors cautious ahead of tense US-China trade talks while the Turkish lira slipped over concerns about Ankara’s planned incursion in northern Syria, Reuters reported.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.13% while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.53%.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 lost 0.45% on Monday, unable to sustain gains made after positive tweets and news headlines about the trade talks.

At Bursa, foreign funds remained net sellers but at a slower pace of RM65.5mil on Monday while local institutions were net buyers at RM55.6mil and retailers at RM9.9mil.

Carlsberg jumped RM1.08 to RM27.68 and Heineken 30 sen to RM24.24 but BAT fell 22 sen to RM18.04.

Petronas Chemicals rose 13 sen to RM7.33 and Public Bank 12 sen to RM19.46 while MISC added eight sen to RM7.86.

Chip makers extended their gains, with Unisem up 16 sen to RM2.83 and MPI 10 sen to RM9.95.

QL Resources added 11 sen to RM7.19 and Jade Marvel nine sen to RM1.15.

MAHB fell 19 sen to RM8.48 with 100 shares done, Petronas Dagangan four sen to RM23.64, Westports and Digi three sen each to RM4.17 and RM4.64.

Source: TheStar