Public Bank, Petronas Chemicals lift KLCI to key 1,500

KUALA LUMPUR: Some nibbling of key stocks Public Bank and Petronas Chemicals helped nudge the FBM KLCI to the key 1,500 level early Thursday after the release of their results.

Investors also awaited details of the economic stimulus to be delivered by interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at 4pm to offset the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus which had battered several countries.

At 9.13am, the FBM KLCI was up 5.10 points or 0.34% to 1,500.29. Turnover was 377.97 million shares valued at RM130.43mil. There were 185 gainers, 197 losers and 169 counters unchanged.

Asian markets saw a volatile open as investors tuned in to a rare White House briefing by President Donald Trump to address the coronavirus, trying to gauge the risk that the epidemic poses to the world’s largest economy, Bloomberg reported.

It reported futures on the S&P 500 were down 0.4% as of 9:44 a.m. in Tokyo. The index dropped 0.4% on Wednesday.

Japan’s Topix fell 1.1%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 0.2% but Kospi Index was up 0.2%.

At Bursa on Wednesday, foreign funds stepped up their selling pressure with net selling of RM362.02mil but local institutions were net buyers at RM220.73mil while retail investors also continued to pick up battered stock and their net buying was RM141.29mil.

Public Bank rose 22 sen to RM17.42 and Petronas Chemicals 16 sen to RM6.01.

F&N added 62 sen to RM31.76 and Carlsberg 14 sen to RM35.90 while CI HOLDINGS added 11 sen to RM1.33 and QL Resources nine sen to RM8.29. Ajinomoto lost 16 sen to RM15.24

MPI gained 28 sen to RM11.48 and Pentamaster 11 sen to RM4.94 but MI fell 15 sen to RM2.80 on profit taking.

KAB tumbled 22.5 sen to 68 sen, G3 18 sen to RM2.40 and MBMR 16 sen to RM3.80.

Source: TheStar