KUALA LUMPUR: Tenaga Nasional again helped power the FBM KLCI to a higher close on Thursday on sustained fund buying, sending the power giant's share price to the highest close since Dec 4, 2018.

At 5pm, the KLCI was up 9.89 points or 0.53% to 1,675.43. Turnover was 2.27 billion shares valued at RM2.28bil. There were 468 gainers, 353 losers and 380 counters unchanged.

Asian stock markets rallied while the US dollar dropped and global bond yields plunged, with the 10-year US yield falling below 2%, after the Federal Reserve signalled possible interest rate cuts later this year, Reuters reported.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.92%, led by gains in China, while Tokyo's Nikkei advanced 0.67%. European stock futures point to gains of up to 0.5% for markets there.
Tenaga rose 60 sen to RM13.88 and pushed the KLCI up 5.95 points, which could be due to foreign fund buying.

IHH ended 12 sen higher to RM5.76 and added 1.83 points, Genting Bhd 23 sen to RM6.91 and GentingM four sen higher at RM3.38.

Consumer stocks were among the top gainers, with Heineken up 64 sen to RM24, Carlsberg 52 sen to RM25.14 and Nestle 30 sen to RM148.80 but Dutch Lady fell 16 sen to RM63.30 and F&N 12 sen lower at RM34.36.

As for telcos, Maxis added 13 sen to RM5.75, Digi and Axiata were flat at RM4.95 and RM5.05.

Among the banks, RHB Bank rose eight sen to RM5.59. There were 231 million shares traded off-market at RM5.45 each, or a 5.76% stake, based on the paid-up of 4.010 billion shares.

Aabar Investments sold 231 million shares at RM5.45 each  for a total of RM1.258bil, Bloomberg reported. The shares at RM5.45 were at the top end of the indicative range, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg. 

Ambank added three sen to RM4.39, Hong Leong Bank four sen to RM19, Maybank was flat at RM8.94, Public Bank shed two sen to RM23.08 and CIMB three sen lower at RM5.23.

Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM23 to RM2,023 per tonne. Sime Plantation fell 22 sen to RM4.78 and erased 2.64 points from the KLCI, IOI Corp shed four sen to RM4.33, PPB Group six sen to RM18.68 and KL Kepong two sen lower at RM24.58. However, Genting Plantations rose 24 sen to RM10.34.

US light crude oil jumped US$1.51 to US$55.27 and Brent gained US$1.57 to US$63.39.

Yinson rose 60 sen to RM5.81.Petronas Chemical edged up one sen to RM8.37, Petronas Dagangan and Petronas Gas were unchanged at RM25.50 and RM17.60 while Dialog was flat also at RM3.26.

Lafarge fell eight sen to RM3.63, which was below YTL takeover offer of RM3.75 a share as the recent rally collapsed as there would not be a hike in cement prices.

The ringgit rose against the weakening US dollar but faltered against the pound sterling, euro and Singapore dollar.

It rose 0.49% to the greenback to 4.1525 but fell 0.5% to the pound at 5.2760, slipping 0.17 against the euro and Singapore dollar to 4.6862 and 3.0584.