KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI ended higher on Thursday, the primary quarter of 2022, bucking the regional development as buyers picked up bargains after the current decline.
At the closing bell, the index went up 4.14 factors, or 0.26%, to 1,587.36. The index had earlier risen to a excessive of 1,589.06.
Year-to-date, the FBM KLCI is up 19.83 factors, or 1.26% in opposition to 1,567.53 on Dec 31, 2021.
Broad market sentiment was optimistic, with 530 losers outpacing 370 gainers and 445 counters which traded unchanged. About 2.86 billion shares, valued at RM2.36bil, modified palms.
Top gainers on Bursa Malaysia included PMB Technology, which added 94 sen to RM18.34, Heineken Malaysia
rose 44 sen to RM22.48 and Aeon Credit gained 30 sen to RM15.12.
Nestle misplaced 90 sen to RM133.60, Genting Plantations fell 19 sen to RM8.55 and KESM declined 10 sen to RM8.60.
Among the banks, Maybank rose six sen to RM8.94, Public Bank added two sen to RM4.67, RHB Bank climbed two sen to RM5.96, Hong Leong Bank superior 4 sen to RM20.20 and CIMB unchanged at RM5.33.
Meanwhile, oil costs plunged on information that the US was contemplating the discharge of as much as 180 million barrels from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve (SPR).
US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) fell US$4.76 to US$103.06 and Brent misplaced US$4.05 to US$109.40 per barrel.
“These efforts point to two glaring issues. First, the US has had little success in persuading Opec members to increase output. Second, any expansion in US supply to global markets that hits the oil price will only be sustained once Ukraine and Russia are close to striking a ceasefire deal,” SPI Asset Management managing associate Stephen Innes stated.
“That outcome does not seem likely yet despite growing optimism earlier in the week. So perhaps the strategic release will bridge that gap until there is less war and more peace.
“But at minimum, it could temper oil prices’ upside ambitions until we get a formal announcement from the White House on the exact details,” he added.
OANDA senior analyst Jeffrey Halley nonetheless expects Brent to commerce in a uneven US$100 to US$120 vary, with WTI bouncing round in a US$95 to US$115 a barrel vary.
“An Iran nuclear agreement finally getting over the line, in combination with OPEC+ monthly increases and an extended global SPR release will change that outlook,” he stated.
Among the important thing regional markets:
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed down 0.73% to 27,821.43;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.06% to 21,996.85;
Shanghai Composite Index misplaced 0.44% to three,252.20;
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.27% to 17,693.47 and;
South Korea’s Kospi superior 0.4% to 2,757.65 factors.
