Business

Published: Friday June 15, 2012 MYT 1:30:00 PM

Genting stocks lift KLCI, key markets up

By Joseph Chin


KUALA LUMPUR: Some mild fund buying of Genting Malaysia and Genting Bhd helped nudge the FBM KLCI higher at midday on Friday, in line with some of the key regional markets.

Asian markets advanced on investors' hopes the US Federal Reserve would take action to stimulate economic growth to mitigate the impact of the euro zone crisis.

In London, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said Britain would launch a scheme to provide cheap long-term funding to banks to encourage them to lend to businesses and consumers, Reuters reported.

This would see the UK government and central bank flooding Britain's banking system with more than 100bil pounds (US$155.43bil), seeking to pump credit through an economy struggling to escape recession under the "black cloud" of the euro zone crisis.

At Bursa Malaysia, the FBM KLCI was up 4.18 points to 1,575.12 at midday. Turnover was 411.12 million shares valued at RM646.34mil. There were 323 gainers, 217 losers and 298 stocks unchanged.

Among the key regional markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.15%to 19,023.95; Shanghai's Composite Index added 0.17% to 2,299.77; Taiwan's Taiex added 1.14% to 7,55.61 and Singapore's Straits Times Index 0.27% higher at 2,787.10.

However, Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 0.18% to 8,553.79 and South Korea's Kospi 0.61% lower at 1,859.99.

US light crude oil rose 66 cents to US$84.57 and Brent 76 cents to US$97.93. The ringgit was stronger against the US dollar at 3.1663. Crude palm oil futures for third-month delivery rose RM4 to RM2,850.

At Bursa, Genting Malaysia rose 16 sen to Rm3.56, pushing the KLCI up 1.48 points, Genting nine sen to RM9.47, adding another 0.79 points to the index.

UMW rose 27 sen to RM8.66, MMHE 20 and PPB 20 sen each to RM5.30 and RM15.92.

Pharmaniaga hit limit-up, surging RM1.49 to RM6.48 when it resumes trading after meeting the public shareholding spread.

Luster-WA was the most active with 36.91 million units done, up 1.5 sen to 4.5 sen while the shares added 0.5 sen to eight sen.

Supermax added 14 sen to RM1.98 in active trade while Top Glove rose 21 sen to RM4.87.

United Plantations fell 22 sen to RM24.88, Tradewinds Plantations 10 sen to RM4.80 and Batu Kawan six sen to RM18.46.

Among the banks, Maybank fell nine sen to RM8.61 and Public Bank eight sen to RM13.62.

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