FBM KLCI up at its highest point of the day after Petronas Chemicals peak

KUALA LUMPUR (July 16): FBM KLCI erased its losses for a rise of 4.74% or 0.28% after Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd and Petronas Gas Bhd climbed into the final minutes of trading.

At 17h, the KLCI closed at its highest intraday at 1,726.67 points after falling to its lowest intraday at 1,717.17 points. The KLCI had previously fallen after China announced today that its economy had grown by 6.7 percent in the second quarter of 2018.

Reuters reported that data indicates a modest slowdown in the world's second-largest economy , Efforts to address debt risks are starting to weigh on growth, and a trade war with the United States threatens exports. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast gross domestic product growth of 6.7% in the April-to-June quarter, slowing only slightly by 6.8% over the previous three quarters.

In Malaysia, analysts believe that the sale of local institutional investors have supported the market.

"Local purchases of funds may prevent the index (KLCI) from dropping further and then back up the index. At this critical juncture, I can not say that foreign funds would resume not selling because it's entirely possible, so I have to book my comment on this part, "said Pong Teng Siew, director of research at Sdn Bhd. Shares of Petronas Chemicals and Petronas Gas advanced to the top Bursa Malaysia winners: Petronas Chemicals climbed 25 sen to 8.87 while Petronas Gas added 16 sen to RM18.36.

The most active stock was My Bhd Bhd Services with about 121 million shares traded.The stock rose from 10.5 sen to RM1.01.