KLCI notched gains for the five trading days of the week on the back of strong investor sentiment, rebound in Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit’s rally against major currencies especially the US dollar and rebound in crude oil prices helped propel the FBM KLCI to its highest close since Aug 5 on Friday.
The 30-stock KLCI notched gains for the five trading days of the week on the back of strong investor sentiment, rebound in Malaysia’s exports and improvement in Bank Negara Malaysia’s international reserves in ringgit terms.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 14.34 points or 0.85% to 1,706.54. Turnover was 2.46 billion shares valued at RM2.84bil. There were 567 gainers, 305 losers and 335 counters unchanged.
Reuters reported world stocks rose on Friday, putting them on course for their biggest weekly rise in four years after minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting showed the US central bank is in no rush to raise interest rates.
The ringgit rose to 4.1295 against the US dollar – the best since Aug 20 – from the previous close of 4.2358 while it was quoted at 6.3431 against the pound sterling from 6.4922 while it was at 2.9606 against the Singapore dollar from 2.9993.
Stock market data showed foreign funds had been picking up battered down stocks this week after the heavy selldown up to last week where more than RM16bil had left the country year-to-date.
Axiata was the biggest mover among the KLCI stocks, up 17 sen to RM6.38 and nudging it up 2.55 points. DiGi added four sen to Rm5.74 but Maxis shed one sen to RM6.80 and Telekom was down six sen to RM6.82.
Tenaga rose 22 sen to RM12.50 on fund buying as analysts remained upbeat on the outlook for the power giant. Genting Bhd
gained 14 sen to RM7.81.
US light crude oil rallied 76 cents to US$50.19 and Brent added 52 cents to US$53.57.
Petronas Dagangan added 38 sen to RM23.50, Petronas Chemicals 14 sen to RM6.54 and Petronas Gas was flat at RM22.60 while SK Petro added seven sen to RM2.20.
KNM was the most active, ending the day up three sen to 56.5 sen. Sumatec, Bumi Armada and Perisai gained one sen each to 16.5 sen, 99.5 sen and 37.5 sen respectively.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM31 to RM2,245 per tonne.
PPB Group rose 24 sen to RM15.68, KL Kepong added 22 sen to RM22.60, IOI Corp 10 sen to RM4.44 but Sime Darby shed one sen to RM8.75.
As for banks, Maybank rose eight sen to RM8.60, CIMN four sen to Rm4.96. RHB Cap seven sen to RM6.20, AmBank four sen to RM4.80 and Public Bank two sen to RM18.40 but Hong Leong Bank fell two sen to RM13.56.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.64% to 18,438.67;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.46% to 22,458.80;
CSI 300 advanced 1.32% to 3,340.12;
Shanghai’s Composite Index rose 1.27% to 3,183.15;
Shenzen Composite was up 1.47% to 1,811.63;
Hang Seng China Enterprise rose 1.16% to 10,406.79 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index jumped 1.59% to 2,993.99.
Spot gold jumped US$13.54 to US$1,152.55.
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