KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking shares rose the most in 4 ½ weeks at the midday break on March 18, adding 14 sen to RM4.16, on local fund buying with interest seen also in Public Bank, Bursa and Tenaga shares.

The better performance of the local stock market was also in line with Hong Kong and Singapore.

At 12.30pm, the KL Composite Index was up 8.16 points to 850.03. Turnover was 195.88 million shares valued at RM243.63 million. There were 231 gainers, 94 losers and 171 counters flat.

The Hang Seng Index rose 1.5% to 13,075.39 while Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 1.4% to 1,580.45. Shanghai’s Composite Index was 0.45% higher at 2,228.21 but Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.64% to 7,898.55.

Light crude oil fell 60 cents to US$48.56 after the strong rally while crude palm oil third-month futures rose RM15 to RM1,937.

Among the gainers were BAT, rising 50 sen to RM44.25, Public Bank 25 sen to RM7.60, Bursa 24 sen to RM4.72 and Tanjong 20 sen to RM14.10. SP Setia gained 16 sen to RM3.12 and Tenaga 15 sen to RM6.10.

LHH jumped 27.5 sen to RM1 with 1,000 shares done.

Among plantation stocks, Far East added 15 sen to RM5.20, Batu Kawan also 15 sen to RM7.65, KL Kepong 10 sen to RM10.10, IOI Corp two sen higher to RM2.82 and Sime Darby unchanged at RM5.55.

KNM was unchanged at 35 sen. It was the most active with 31.25 million shares done.

Telekom rose two sen to RM3.52 but TMI fell two sen to RM23.16.

Nestle fell 25 sen to RM28.75, Hunza 17 sen to 28 sen and SPK 16 sen to 34 sen while Kris Assets-WA fell 15.5 sen to 43.5 sen.