KLCI climbs to 7-day high, regional markets rally

KUALA LUMPUR: Tenaga and Genting helped push the FBM KLCI
to a seven-day high on Monday as investors were relieved that euro zone
finance ministers agreed to lend Spain up to US$125bil to strengthen
its struggling banks.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 9.57
points or 0.61% to 1,580.19, the highest since May 31. Turnover was
355.23 million shares valued at RM589.69mil. There were 327 gainers,
227 losers and 262 counters unchanged.
Among the key regional
markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced 1.77% to 8,608.97; Hong Kong's
Hang Seng Index 2.06% to 18,883.43; Shanghai's Composite Index0.32% to
2,288.70; South Korea's Kospi 1.51% to 1,863.34; Taiwan's Taiex 1.37%
to 7,095.78 and Singapore's Straits Times Index 1.49% to 2,778.76.
Commodities
also rose, with US light crude oil up US$1.90 to US$86 and Brent
US$1.99 to US$101.46 while spot gold added US$5.50 higher to
US$1,598.90.
The ringgit was firmer against the US dollar at 3.1632. Crude palm oil third-month futures rose RM26 to RM2,999 per tonne.
Reuters
said equities, commodities and the battered euro jumped on Monday after
the euro zone finance ministers agreed to lend Spain up to US$125bil.
While
the move would avert a fiscal collapse in Spain, Reuters said the
relief might be short lived though, as investors look forward to a
Greek national election on June 17 that could put Athens on a path out
of the bloc and precipitate a deeper crisis over the future of the euro.
At Bursa Malaysia,
the country's industrial production index rose 3.2% in April from a
year ago, boosted by the manufacturing and electricity sectors. The
increase was higher than a 2% consensus.
Gas Malaysia was in focus on its trading debut, up 25 sen to RM2.45 with 72.26 million shares done.
Tenaga and Genting added 11 sen each to RM6.51 and RM9.67, pushing the KLCI up 1.4 points and 0.96 of a point.
Petronas Dagangan jumped 80 sen to RM21.54, YTL added six sen to RM2.06, Maybank five sen to RM8.75.
Octagon fell 3.5 sen to five sen after it was declared an affected listed as it defaulted on the credit facility extended by Amanah Raya Capital Sdn Bhd.
Among the decliners were PPB, down 10 sen to RM15.92, PetChem two sen to RM6.47 while BToto lost six sen to RM4.24.