KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 28): The FBM KLCI rose for the second consecutive day today after the Christmas holiday break, buoyed by positive regional indices. Trading, however, remained thin.
The KLCI's rise was helped by gains in select blue chips such as British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd, Genting Bhd and Malayan Banking Bhd.
The indicator closed at the day's high of 1,630.30 points, a gain of 10.62 points or 0.66% compared with yesterday's close of 1,619.68 points.
The ringgit depreciated 0.1% against the US dollar to 4.4835 as at 4.41pm.
In commodities, international traded Brent Crude Index rose 0.37% to US$56.30 (RM252.34) per barrel while US Crude also increased 0.37% to US$54.10 as at 4.34pm.
Mercury Securities Sdn Bhd research head Edmund Tham said the local stock market's trend is likely to depend on external factors such as the performance of the US and Chinese markets.
"Trading volume is likely to remain thin as many traders and fund managers are away from their desks," he told theedgemarkets.com.
Tham expects the benchmark index to trade around the current level in the remaining trading days of the year.
A total of 1.41 billion shares worth RM1.45 billion changed hands today. Market breadth was positive, with 416 advancers versus 287 losers while 345 counters were traded unchanged.
The top gainers were led by Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd, which gained RM1.10 to settle at RM78.50, while the top loser was Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, which closed 50 sen lower at RM55.
The most actively traded stock was Perisai Petroleum Teknologi Bhd — up 1.5 sen to close at nine sen, with 126.92 million shares traded.
Across the region, South Korea's Kospi retreated 0.87%, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.54% and Japan Nikkei 225 saw a marginal drop of 0.01%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index, however, rose 0.83%.
Reuters reported that Asia's stocks followed Wall Street higher, while the US dollar firmed against the yen following the release of upbeat US economic data overnight.
Crude oil prices held large gains on expectations of supply tightening once oil-producing nations implement a scheduled output cut.