KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Gas, Tenaga Nasional and Press Metal
helped shore up the FBM KLCI early Friday as investor sentiment steadied in line with key Asian markets.
At 9.30am, the KLCI was up 1.58 points or 0.09% to 1,823.18. Turnover was 463.75 million shares valued at RM219.75mil. There were 229 gainers, 195 losers and 276 counters unchanged.
Asia stocks edged higher on Friday and were within reach of record highs, although losses on Wall Street slowed the advance, while worries over a possible US government shutdown weighed on the dollar, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.1%. The index was poised for a 1% gain on the week, during which it rode a surge in global equities and climbed to a record high on Thursday.
Refiners Hengyuan and Petron were the top gainers, rebounding from the recent selling pressure. Hengyuan rose 32 sen to RM12.32 and Petron 26 sen higher at RM11.54.
However, the call warrants of Petron-CM fell 9.5 sen to 5.5 sen and Hengyuan-CO tumbled 7.5 sen to 7.5 sen.
Among the KLCI stocks, Petronas Gas added 16 sen to RM17.48, Tenaga gained 10 sen to RM15.70, Press Metal seven sen to RM5.65 and MISC six sen to RM7.50.
KESM added 16 sen to RM20.20 and Hai-O 12 sen to RM5.21 while Tong Herr was up 10 sen to RM4.19.
UMW OG advanced two sen to 36.5 sen in active trade while Sapura Energy added 2.5 sen to 78.5 sen.
On the ringgit, OANDA Asia Pacific head of trading Stephen Innes said he did not expect any surprises or significant moves ahead of the weekend as the Ringgit has been a pillar of stability this week.
“The markets are pricing at roughly 70 % rate hike probability which suggests we could see an uptick in volatility early next week ahead of the MPC meeting next week which will be a significant influence over the near-term direction.
“In fact it’s the day we've been building for the past three months,” he said.
The ringgit was at 3.94 to the US dollar.
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