Asia mixed, KLCI up on plantations, Public Bank

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips inched up early Friday – the last trading day of November – underpinned by gains in plantations, Public Bank, Digi and Genting Malaysia.

At 9.02am, the FBM KLCI had edged up 0.22 point or 0.01% to 1,583.99. Turnover was 64.48 million shares valued at RM25mil. There were 98 gainers, 121 losers and 165 counters unchanged.

Asia stocks were mixed on the final trading day of November with a lack of fresh drivers due to the US holiday, Bloomberg reported.

Shares saw modest gains in Tokyo and Sydney, and slipped in Seoul. US futures edged lower and the dollar was little changed.

Bloomberg reported investors continue to wait for progress on a US-China trade deal, with the next batch of American tariffs on Chinese goods due to begin Dec 15. This week, China has said it will retaliate against a US bill in support of Hong Kong protesters, though stopped short of offering any details.

Foreign funds continued to sell down their stakes in Malaysian equities, with net selling at RM193mil on Thursday while local institutions were net buyers at RM163.1mil and local retail investors at RM30mil.

KL Kepong rose 44 sen to RM23.74 while PPB Group added 16 sen to RM18.44 and Sarawak Oil Palm 11 sen to RM3.19 after the rebound in crude palm oil prices on Thursday and also stronger earnings.

Public Bank added eight sen to RM19.82 while Westports, Digi and GentingM climbed six sen each to RM4.25, RM4.62 and RM3.17 respectively.

Takaful and Adventa added eight sen each to RM5.77 and 63 sen.

Pentamaster tumbled 81 sen to RM3.88 with 1.18 million shares done.

Profit taking saw Tenaga falling 22 sen to RM13.50 while CAN-ONE and Muda lost 11 sen each to RM3.12 and RM1.51.

Petronas Dagangan lost eight sen to RM23.42 and Petronas Gas six sen to RM16 while Affin gave up five sen to RM1.93. Tomypak was down four sen to 48 sen in active trade.

Source: TheStar