KUALA LUMPUR: Following an optimistic performance last Friday, the unrelenting surge in energy prices spurred stocks on Bursa Malaysia to tack on more gains in early Monday trade.
At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was up 14.88 points to 1,606.6, as a jump in crude oil futures prices pushed blue chips past the 1,600 psychological resistance.
At the time of writing, Brent crude had risen an additional 5% to US$102.87 a barrel as investors continued to pile into the commodity amid Russia-Ukraine tensions.
The domestic market appeared to shrug off the negative performance of US stock futures, which is pointing towards a weaker opening on Wall Street for Monday trading.
Nevertheless, the threat of escalation in the Russia-Ukraine crisis is keeping investors on edge, according to Malacca Securities Research.
Although Wall Street’s rebound extended on Friday, market condition is likely to remain fragile as US stock futures trended lower at the time of writing on the back of returning concern on the Ukraine-Russia tension as President Putin puts his nuclear forces on high alerts," it said in a report.
Petronas Chemicals soared 46 sen to RM9.75 on the strength of rising crude prices.
Plantation stocks were also on the rise, led by Sime Darby Plantation rising 15 sen to RM4.93 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong climbing 72 sen to RM16.20.
Bank stocks meanwhile remained firm following recent corporate earnings and expectations that higher energy prices will have a postitive knock-on impact on the domestic economy.
Maybank was up two sen to RM8.90, Public Bank rose six sne to RM4.43, CIMB gained seven sen to RM5.74 and Hong Leong Bank climbed 14 sen to RM20.
However, technology counters continued to slide as investors rotated into economic recovery plays. MPI fell 30 sen to RM35.70, Pentaster shed 20 sen to RM3.37 and Vitrox lost 15 sen to RM7.63.
Among actives, SIAB gained 1.5 sen to 31.5 sen, KNM lost 1.5 sen to 15 sen and Dataprep dropped one sen to 26 sen.