KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 5): The FBM KLCI closed flat on the last trading day before entering the Lunar New Year, as it inched up by 5.69 points or 0.34% to 1,662.46 points.
But the local benchmark fared better than many of its regional peers, as commodity prices and the ringgit held steady in a week where crude oil prices had earlier seen a volatile swing.
The KLCI went to a high of 1,663.77 points at 3:12 pm, and was lifted by blue chips that had been laggards for the most part of the year, like CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd.
Telecommunications operators, namely Axiata Group Bhd and DiGi.Com Bhd, also continued their recovery today after the panic sell-down, because of the government’s announcement of a spectrum reallocation last week.
Areca Capital Sdn Bhd's chief executive officer Danny Wong Teck Meng told theedgemarkets.com that while market sentiment is still fragile, crude oil prices are still within the range of the government’s assumed average price of US$30 to US$35 a barrel.
Brent crude, the standard-bearer for oil prices, fell by 0.84% to US$34.17 per barrel as at writing.
“As long as oil prices are within this range, it should be fine for us. And crude palm oil (CPO) price is now trading above RM2,500 per tonne, which should be good for plantation counters,” he said.
Evidently, Sime Darby Bhd, Genting Plantations Bhd, United Plantations Bhd and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd rose by nine sen to 22 sen today. CPO price rose by RM122 or 5.02% to RM2,550 per tonne over the past week.
However, Wong said that Malaysia still needs to show further improvement for foreign investors to come back. “The sentiment is still fragile, and there are no strong indicators that foreigners are coming back.”
“Eventually, if the ringgit strengthens further, it will eventually attract foreign investors,” he said.
The ringgit today fell 0.2% to 4.1535 against the US dollar. The local currency has strengthened from 4.2525, before Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced revisions to Budget 2016 on Jan 28.
On the broader market, a total of 1.49 billion shares collectively valued at RM1.68 billion were traded. Decliners outnumbered gainers today, at 412 and 388 respectively.
Tiger Synergy Bhd was the most actively-traded stock today. It was followed by XOX Bhd and APFT Bhd.
Today’s biggest gainers were Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia Bhd and United Plantations.
Inversely, the biggest decliners included Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd, Petronas Dagangan Bhd and PPB Group Bhd.
Key regional share indices had a mixed performance today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped by 1.32%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.63%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 inched down by 0.08%.
However Korea’s Kospi index rose by 0.08%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up by 0.55%, and Singapore’s Straits Times Index marched up by 2.53%.
According to Reuters, Asian stocks were subdued on Friday and the US dollar wobbled ahead of the closely-watched U.S. jobs report, which could provide clues on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy outlook.