Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 7): The FBM KLCI rose 4.13 points or 0.2% today, as higher crude palm oil (CPO) prices lifted plantation counters.

The KLCI ended at 1,672 points at 5pm on gains in stocks like Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) and PPB Group Bhd.

"The KLCI was mainly lifted by plantation counters," Areca Capital Sdn Bhd's chief executive officer Danny Wong told theedgemarkets.com via telephone.

KLK rose 40 sen or 1.8% to RM22.74, while PPB climbed 20 sen or 1.3% to RM15.60. KLK and PPB were Bursa Malaysia's second and ninth-largest gainers respectively.

Malaysian CPO for Feb 2016 rose RM60 to RM2,426 a tonne at 5:17pm.

Reuters reported that palm oil rose for a third consecutive session on Monday to hit a two month high, with the market driven up by strong gains in rival soyoil prices and fears that dryness due to the El Nino weather pattern will cut yields.

Wong also noted Bursa Malaysia's leading gainer Top Glove Corp Bhd. The stock climbed 68 sen or 7% to RM11, ahead of announcement on Top Glove's first quarter financials this month.

“Export-oriented counters such as glove counters were performing quite well today,” he told theedgemarkets.com via telephone.

Bursa Malaysia saw 460 advancers versus 359 decliners. A total of 1.79 billion shares, valued at RM1.74 billion, exchanged hands.

Leading decliner was British American Tobacco (M) Bhd. The most actively-traded counter was XOX Bhd.

Across Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.99%, while South Korea's Kospi closed 0.54% lower. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.15%.

Reuters reported Asian share markets turned mixed on Monday, as caution grew ahead of Chinese data, though sentiment stayed, supported by hopes the US economy would be able to handle an expected first increase in interest rates in almost a decade.

U.S. crude futures for front-month delivery fell below US$40 per barrel on Monday, after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) failed last week to agree on output targets to reduce a bulging oil glut that has cut prices by over 60% since 2014.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)

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