KUALA LUMPUR: Hong Leong Bank and Petronas Chemicals underpinned the FBM KLCI’s mild rebound early Thursday amid the volatile political landscape but the index continued to remain below the new normal of 1,500.

       At 9.10am, the FBM KLCI was up 3.98 points or 0.27% to 1,495.31. Turnover was 276.79 million shares valued at RM126.62mil. There were 198 gainers, 152 losers and 292 counters unchanged.

       Bloomberg reported Asian stocks were steady early Thursday after US shares dipped amid mixed economic data and comments from a Federal Reserve official that the central bank is on course to taper stimulus support.

       Equities edged up in South Korea and Japan and were little changed in Australia. US contracts climbed. The S&P 500 fell from a record overnight, led lower by energy shares, while the technology sector proved more resilient.

       Oil held below US$70 a barrel after an increase in US crude inventories added to concerns about demand recovery amid the coronavirus resurgence.

       At Bursa, Hong Leong Bank rose 22 sen to RM18.44 and Petronas Chemicals nine sen to RM8.09.

       Stronger earnings saw F&N climb 12 sen to RM24.56, SBC Corp 9.5 sen to 60.5 sen and MMC Corp nine sen to RM6.99.

       Trans Ocean was on its own trajectory, climbing 13 sen to RM4.19 in the absence of any strong positive news.

       MMC Corp, which was to be taken private, rose nine sen to RM1.81.

       As for chip-related stocks, KESM added 16 sen to RM13.20, Unisem 12 sen to RM8.81 and Greatec nine sen to RM6.99. However, MPI fell 10 sen to RM45.

       DNeX climber 0.5 sen to 76 sen after its 60%-owned Silterra entered into a wafer supply and purchase agreement worth US$400mil (RM1.69bil) with ChipOne Technology (Beijing) Co Ltd.

       Tenaga Nasional lost nine sen to RM9.74 and Petronas Gas four sen to RM15.86.

       Other decliners were Apollo, Cheetah, PIE and Scientex.