KLCI up nearly 8pt midday, banks, O&G lead gainers (Update)

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips continued to advance on Monday, sending the
30-stock FBM KLCI up nearly eight points at midday, with fund buying of
banks, Petronas-related stocks and SapuraKencana Petroleum.
At
12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 7.66 points or % to 1,776.82. Turnover was
1.56 billion shares valued at RM1.20bil. There were 679 gainers, 158
losers and 240 stocks unchanged.
The strong investor sentiment also mirrored the regional markets.
Reuters
reported the yen edged higher on Monday after Japan's economics
minister said further weakness in the yen could harm households, while
Asian shares rose in response to U.S. equities rallying on upbeat
economic data.
The dollar fell to as low as 102.00 yen earlier on
Monday, pulling away from Friday's high of 103.32 yen, the greenback's
highest level versus the yen since October 2008.
At Bursa Malaysia, Petronas Dagangan rose 30 sen to RM25.42, SK Petro 24 sen to RM3.96 while Deleum jumped 37 sen to RM3.72 on the strong newsflow in the O&G sector.
Insurers were also traded higher with Allianz-PA up 38 sen to RM9.70, Allianz 25 sen to RM9.75 and MNRB 29 sen to RM3.69.