KUALA LUMPUR: Maybank, CIMB and petroleum stocks underpinned the blue chips advance on Friday – the fourth straight day of gains – as the FBM KLCI closed comfortably above the 1,600 level.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 11.04 points or 0.69% to 1,612.74. Turnover was 2.12 billion shares valued at RM2.32bil. Advancers led decliners 463 to 381 while 312 counters were unchanged.
The ringgit closed higher against the greenback, pound sterling and Singapore dollar. At 5pm, it was at 4.1990 to the US dollar from the previous close of 4.2318 while it was quoted at 6.4630 against the pound against the previous day’s 6.5521. Against the Singapore dollar it was at 2.9903 from 3.0213.
Key Asian markets were mostly higher, except for Hong Kong. China stocks jumped more than 4 percent for a second straight day on Friday as signs of fresh support from Beijing prompted more bargain hunting following the earlier plunge that panicked global markets.
Reuters reported European shares eased on Friday, having already recouped all their losses from a bruising eight percent drop earlier this week, with markets cooling off despite hopes for more help from central banks.
At Bursa Malaysia, AmBank rose 14 sen to RM4.70, CIMB 12 sen to RM5, Maybank 11 sen to RM8.76, RHB Cap and Hong Leong Bank four sen each to RM6.48 and RM13.08 but Public Bank shed two sen to RM18.
US light crude oil fell 25 cents to US$42.31 and Brent 32 cents lower at US$47.24.
Petronas Gas rose 36 sen to RM21.32, Petronas Chemicals 10 sen to RM6.07 and SK Petro 11 sen to RM1.72 but Petronas Daganagan lost six sen to RM21.16.
Penny stocks saw active trade with Sumatec up one sen to 13.5 sen while KNM and Perisai were flat at 48 sen and 29 sen.
AirAsia gave up its two days of gains, down 1.5 sen to 87 sen with 129 million shares done. It had fallen to fresh record lows in recent days.
Crude palm oil (CPO) for third month delivery rise RM37 to RM1,962 per tonne. Genting Plantations added 48 sen to RM9.87, PPB eight sen to RM15.34, KL Kepong two sen to RM20.82, IOI Corp one sen to RM4 while Sime was flat RM7.45.
Genting Bhd
gained 16 sen to RM6.85, Genting Malayusia seven sen to RM3.96 but Tenaga shed two sen to RM11.18.
As for telcos, Maxis fell five sen to RM6.57, TM shed one sen to RM6.49, Axiata was flat at RM6.14 and DiGi added one sen to RM5.23.
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