04/06/2014 (The Star) - Plantation stocks helped push the local bourse to a higher close on Tuesday with IOI Corp, KLK and United Plantations among counters seeing interest from funds despite lower crude palm oil (CPO) futures.

CPO prices for August delivery slipped RM33 to RM2,383 per tonne at 5pm.

China equities fell after a private gauge of manufacturing activity showed a contraction in May at 49.4, which was also below the median forecast of 49.7 but higher than the 48.1 reported in the previous month.

European markets were lower before economic data that may point to a still uncertain growth outlook for the euro-area and the US.

At the close, the FBM KLCI rose 8.30 points or 0.45% to 1,872.55. Advancers outpaced decliners 395 to 369 while 338 other counters were traded unchanged.

There were 1.19 billion shares traded with a total turnover of RM1.96bil.

Among plantation stocks, IOI Corp gained 22 sen to RM5.19, adding 2.92 points to the index. United Plantations was up 20 sen to RM27.60 and KLK was 20 sen higher at RM24.20 while PPB and FGV closed unchanged at RM15.64 and RM4.34 respectively.

Interest was also seen in smaller cap plantation counters such as TAHPS, which was 30 sen higher at RM9.50 and Far East, which added 30 sen to RM8.

Blue chip counters that gained included BAT, which rose 56 sen to RM63 and HLFG, which gained 30 sen to RM15.82.

Construction outfit IJM added 23 sen to RM7.01 and YTL was unchanged at RM1.63.

MAS was unchanged at 17.5 sen and AAX was down 1.5 sen to 72.5 sen.

The ringgit traded at 3.229 to the US dollar. It closed at 3.228 yesterday.

Nymex crude oil was nine cents lower at US$102.38 per barrel.