KLCI opens firmer, Petronas stocks lead

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s blue chips opened firmer on Tuesday, underpinned by mild buying of Petronas-related stocks after their firmer set of earnings while analysts expect the market to be supported again by local funds.

At 9.02am, the FBM KLCI was up 1.18 points to 1,817.32. Turnover was 83.87 million shares valued at RM35.62mil. There were 139 gainers, 76 losers and 129 counters unchanged.

BIMB Securities Research said Monday’s stronger closing, where the KLCI closed up 7.55 points to 1,816.14 was due to continued buying support from local institutions.

“We noticed foreign funds were again the net sellers with net foreign outflow touching RM115mil yesterday.

“We were surprised with the solid performance of the local bourse yesterday and expect the market to be more subdued today with the index to hang around the 1,810/15 levels,” it said.

Petronas Gas rose 38 sen to RM23.48 and Petronas Dagangan 10 sen to RM30.36.

Among plantations, United Plantations rose 38 sen to RM25.88 and KL Kepong 16 sen to RM23.68. However, PPB Group slipped six sen to RM15.42.

Coastal Contracts rose 10 sen to RM4.19 and its warrants 11 sen to RM1.33 after its unit bagged a RM1.2bil contract in Mexico.
BAT fell the most, down 20 sen to RM60.70. Among banks, AmBank shed seven sen to RM7.32 and Public Bank foreign six sen lower at RM19.06 while Affin slipped five sen to RM4.11.