KUALA LUMPUR: Higher crude oil prices gave Petronas-linked stocks a boost in early Thursday trade and nudged the FBM KLCI higher while consumer stocks also advanced.
At 9.27am, the KLCI was up five points or 0.32% to 1,582.82. Turnover was 1.07 billion shares valued at RM501.11mil. There were 360 gainers, 276 losers and 323 counters unchanged.
Asian stocks were steady early Thursday after gains in U.S. shares tied to the economic reopening from the pandemic. The dollar and Treasury yields held an advance, Bloomberg reported.
Equities dipped in Japan and South Korea but rose in Australia. Traders will be monitoring China to see if stocks and the currency extend a rally.
Oil traded around $66 a barrel as shrinking crude inventories and further signs of a demand pick-up in the U.S. countered concerns around the prospect of more Iranian supply. Gold slipped from a four-month high.
On Tuesday, foreign funds were net buyers on Bursa at RM20.4mil and local retail investors at RM44.5mil but local funds were net sellers at RM64.9mil.
Petronas Dagangan rose 32 sen to RM19.14 and Petronas Gas 22 sen to RM16.20.
As for consumer stocks, Nestle added 80 sen to RM136.10, F&N 66c to RM26.44 and Dutch Lady
30 sen to RM34.50.
Pharmaniaga jumped 34 sen to RM4.79. plans to import 10 million doses of finished Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine from China.
It was reported group managing director Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope said this was to prevent supply shortage in Malaysia due to the unpredictability of supplies globally.
Zulkarnain said Pharmaniaga was also confident of supplying about 8.6 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine by the end of June. Some 3.6 million doses of the vaccine would be available in May and five million more in June.
However, chip maker MPI fell 56 sen to RM37.12, Khind 18 sen to RM3.33 and Genetec 13 sen to RM3.66.
KPower skidded 25 sen to RM1.44. It clarified that the company and Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd are two distinct and separate entities which run independently of each other, save for having the same major shareholder and director Datuk Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah.
