KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian equities ended the week on Friday on a firmer note despite the lack of strong positive corporate newsflow, shored up by late gains in Genting Malaysia, IHH Healthcare and CIMB.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 3.53 points or 0.2% to 1,759.16. Over the week, it is up 4.16 points and advanced 7.15% year-to-date.
Turnover was 1.86 billion shares valued at RM1.78bil. There were 428 gainers, 359 losers and 418 counters unchanged.
The ringgit climbed against the US dollar and the pound sterling but fell against the Singapore dollar and the euro. It rose 0.16% to the US dollar at 4.2840 and gained 0.2% to the pound at 5.5679 but fell 0.27% to the Singapore unit at 3.1398 and tumbled 1.11% to the euro at 4.9924.
Oil prices edged higher on a weaker dollar and diplomatic tensions in the Gulf, but Brent held below the US$50 per barrel level that was breached for the first time in six weeks on Thursday, Reuters reported.
US light crude rose 20 cents to US$47.12 and Brent added 23 cents to US$49.53.
Investors were also taking positions ahead of a meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC members in Russia on Monday at which they will discuss compliance with agreed production cuts and progress towards rebalancing an oversupplied market, the wire reported.
At Bursa, Genting Malaysia rose 10 sen to RM5.98 and added one point to the KLCI, IHH gained five sen to RM6.01 and nudged the index by 0.7 of a point, Tenaga rose four sen to RM14.12. Genting Bhd
edged up one sen to RM9.56.
Petronas Gas rose 14 sen to RM18.82, the best gains in recent days, Petronas Dagangan added eight sen to RM23.72 and Petronas Chemical two sen to RM6.97.
As for banks CIMB rose four sen to RM6.35, RHB Bank thre sen to RM5.08, AmBank two sen to RM5.02, Maybank one sen to RM9.63, Public Bank and Hong Leng Bank were flat at RM20.36 and RM15.68. BIMB ended down 10 sen to RM4.38 on worries about its exposure to troubled oil and gas companies.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM7 to RM2,569 per tonne.
TAHPS rose 30 sen to RM7.40, Kluang 10 sen to RM3.30, PPB Group rose eight sen to RM16.80, KL Kepong was flayt at RM24.74, IOI Corp shed one sen to RM4.48 and Sime Darby two sen lower at RM9.54.
As for telcos, Digi fell three sen to RM4.71, Axiata one sen lower at RM4.72, Telekom flat at RM6.35 and Maxis gained one sen to RM5.54.
As for tech and semicon related stocks, Pentamaster rose 25 sen to RM3.76, Vitrox 14 sen higher at RM4 but Unisem fell 12 sen to RM3.58.
BAT gained 28 sen to RM44.16, Nestle fell 62 sen to RM83.28, Carlsberg 14 sen lower at RM15 while F&N lost 12 sen to RM15.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.22% to 20,099.75;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.13% to 26,706.09;
CSI 300 fell 0.51% to 3,728.60;
Shanghai’s Composite Index shed 0.21% to 3,237.98;
Hang Seng China Enterprise lost 0.55% to 10,787.13;
Taiwan’s Taiex was down 0.6% to 10,436.70;
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.34% to 2,450.06 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.64% to 3,314.12.
Spot gold rose US$3.55 to US$1,248.04.
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