KUALA LUMPUR: Consumer stocks were among the top gainers at midday on Tuesday in thin trade amid a cautious broader market but Maxis and Genting Malaysia underpinned the FBM KLCI's advance.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.42 points or 0.15% to 1,670.32. Turnover rose to 1.36 billion shares valued at RM937.86mil. There were 299 gainers, 334 losers and 345 counters unchanged.

The ringgit climbed against the US dollar and pound sterling but slipped against the Singapore dollar and the Euro.

The ringgit was at 4.4740 to the US dollar from the previous close of 4.4770. It rose against the pound to 5.4403 from 5.4528 as the latter languished near its lowest close in three months on renewed concerns about a "hard" Brexit.

However, the ringgit fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.1210 from 3.1069 and shed against the Euro to 4.7486.

BAT rose 76 sen to RM46.18, Dutch Lady added 44 sen to RM54.96 and F&N gained 14 sen to RM23.44 while Heineken climbed 10 sen to RM16.50. Trading volume in these counters were relatively thin.

Maxis rebounded 18 sen to RM6.19 and added 2.22 points to the KLCI. Axiata and Telekom added two sen each to RM4.77 and RM6.17 while Digi was flat at RM4.90.

HLT Global, which made its debut on the ACE Market, rose 10 sen to 55 sen and it saw 27.7 million shares done.

Genting Malaysia rose eight sen to RM4.83 and pushed the KLCI up 0.78 of a point and Genting Bhd added nine sen to RM8.19 and nudged the KLCI up 0.55 of a point while MISC gained six sen to  RM7.49.

Asian stock markets steadied and crude prices inched up from Monday's three-week low, with investors uncertain whether output cuts by major exporters, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, will be enough to support the oil market as other producers have increased supplies, Reuters reported.

US light crude oil rose 15 cents to US$52.11 and Brent added 18 cents to US$55.12. Petronas Dagangan was flat at RM23.80, Petronas Gas slid 36 sen to RM21.04 and Petronas Chemicals lost three sen to RM7.17.

As for banks, Hong Leong Bank added six sen to RM13.34, Public Bank and CIMB were two sen higher at RM20.02 and RM4.78 while Maybank was flat at RM8.26.

Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM23 to RM3,135 per tonne. PPB Group rose eight sen to RM16.16, Sime Darby was flat at RM8.45,  IOI Corp shed one sen to RM4.49 and KL Kepong lost four sen to RM24.06.

Hovid lost 5.5 sen to 29 sen with 93.33 million shares done after the Health Ministry's move to  repeal the manufacturing licences for both Hovid’s facilities in Perak.

Tenaga Nasional lost 16 sen to RM13.76 after it was cut to Neutral at JP Morgan Research. 

Tasco fell one sen to RM1.62 after its announcement that it was buying  Gold Cold Transport Sdn Bhd (GCT) –  one of the largest cold chain logistics players in Malaysia in terms of storage capacity size – for RM186.08mil as it makes its foray into a new segment of the industry.

Among the key regional markets, 

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.94% to 19,272.21;

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.52% to 22,675.19;

CSI 300 inched up 0.07% to 3,366.09;

Shanghai’s Composite Index shed 0,07% to 3,169.17;

Hang Seng China Enterprise rose 0.57% to 9,656.62;

Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.05% to 9,337.96; 

South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.32% to 2,042.23 and

Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.26% to 2,989.29

Spot gold price rose US$5.32 to US$1,186.42 per troy ounce.