07/03/2014 (The Star) - Plantations advanced on Thursday, buoyed by the positive outlook for crude palm oil, underpinning the near 10-point gain by the FBM KLCI.

Market sentiment was also shored up by the stronger key regional markets including China and Hong Kong.

At 5pm, the KLCI was up 9.58 points to 1,838.69. Turnover was 2.27 billion shares valued at RM2.37bil. There were 561 gainers, 244 losers and 317 stocks unchanged.

On the external front, China shares ended higher on Thursday, erasing early losses on strength in property stocks as investors cheered news reports that raised hopes steps will be taken to limit mainland home-price declines.

Crude palm oil for third-month futures rose RM7 to RM2,841. UOB Kay Hian Malaysia Research is maintaining its Overweight call on plantations as it expects crude palm oil prices to rise due to slower supply growth and stable demand.

Genting Plantations and PPB Group rose 30 sen each to RM11 and RM16.66 while KL Kepong added 26 sen to RM23.90 and TSH 21 sen to RM3.26. FGV up nine sen to RM4.62 and IOI Corp five sen higher to RM4.78.

Hong Leong Cap was the top gainer for the day, surging 92 sen to RM10.60.

CMSB was the second best performer, rising 36 sen to RM8.66 on strong upside for the cement producers, which is a proxy to Sarawak's industrialisation programme.

Giving the KLCI a boost were MISC, up 30 sen to RM6.65 and TM added 21 sen to RM5.90.

The ringgit strengthened against the US dollar at 3.2615 compared with the previous close of 3.2721.

Profit taking saw Allianz-PA falling 30 sen to RM10.60 and the shares shed 12 sen to RM10.70 on profit taking.

Petronas Daganagan fell 18 sen to RM30.40 while Perdana Petroleum was down eight sen to RM1.88.

Among the consumer stocks, Carlsberg fell 14 sen to RM12.90 while GAB was down eight sen to RM14.50.