KUALA LUMPUR: The rally on crude palm oil (CPO) futures, which saw the third-month futures hitting a nine-month high of RM2,775, pushed plantation stocks up at the midday break on May 13.

Asian markets also recovered from the morning lows, as stocks rode on the higher commodity prices including goal, copper and soybeans.

At 12.30pm, the KL Composite Index rose 1.29 points to 1,024.31. Turnover was 1.93 billion shares valued at RM1.02 billion.  There were 403 gainers, 185 losers and 211 counters unchanged.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 1.2% to 2,205.16, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.7% to 17,264.9, Shanghai’s Composite Index rose 0.46% to 2,630.32 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 0.87% higher at 9,379.45.

CPO third-month futures rose RM50 to RM2,775, the highest in nine months. Light crude oil added 81 cents to US$59.66. The ringgit was quoted at RM3.51 to the US dollar.

PPB rose the most, adding 50 sen to RM11.30, BLD Plantations and KLK 20 sen higher to RM3.30 and RM11.30, Far East and Kulim 15 sen higher to RM5.90 and RM6.05 while IJM Plantations gained 13 sen to RM2.54. NSOP added 12 sen to RM3.94 and United Plantations 10 sen to RM10.60.

Petra Perdana rose 18 sen to RM2.81 and Petra Energy 17 sen to RM2.14.

Compugates was the most active with 199 million shares done, easing one sen to 12 sen.

Lion Corp rose 1.5 sen to 57 sen and Lion Div three sen to 68.5 sen while companies in the MUI group also saw active trade, with MUI gaining five sen to 31 sen, PM Ind three sen to 11 sen while PM Industries-WA added 1.5 sen to 5.5 sen.

BAT fell 25 sen to RM41.75, Maybank 10 sen to RM5.05, Borneo Oil-WA 8.5 sen to 13.5 sen while Olympia-LA lost 5.5 sen to 21.5 sen.