KUALA LUMPUR: Genting Bhd and Petronas Dagangan helped the FBM KLCI eke out marginal gains early Thursday as investors looked towards institutional players to take the lead.

Bumi Armada slipped after the strong gains the previous day while Ekovest and Iskandar Waterfront City managed to regain their upward momentum.

At 9.28am, the KLCI was up 1.04 points or 0.06% to 1,639.05. Turnover was 561.22 million shares valued at RM273.63mil. There were 219 gainers, 174 losers and 256 counters unchanged.

Asian shares slipped as a surprise deterioration in German business morale rekindled fears of slowing global growth, while oil prices pulled back slightly after a sharp run-up earlier in the week, Reuters reported.

The euro slumped to a 22-month low against the US dollar overnight after the drop in German business confidence highlighted the divergence between data in the euro zone and the US.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.2%, while Japan's Nikkei average edged up 0.3%.

At Bursa, Petronas Dagangan rose 16 sen and Genting 10 sen to RM6.96.

Tasek gained 28 sen to RM6.73 and Lafarge 20 sen to RM3.21.

G3 jumped 28 sen to RM1.35 and the warrants surged 22 sen to RM1.15.

Bumi Armada fell two sen to 25 sen with 137 million shares done after the previous day’s surge. 

It was able to refinance its unsecured term loans of US$380mil (RM1.57bil) and revolving credit facilities of US$280mil (RM1.16bil).

Ekovest added six sen to 99.5 sen and the warrants 6.5 sen to 51 sen while IWC advanced six sen to RM1.25.

Profit taking saw Carlsberg falling 20 sen to RM24.50 and Heineken four sen to RM24.30. 

IHH lost seven sen to RM5.54, AmBank five sen to RM4.45 while MAHB shed four sen to RM7.36.