KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed higher on Friday, in line with most key Asian markets, while supporting investor sentiment were a firmer ringgit and rebound in crude oil prices.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 4.34 points or 0.26% to 1,683.22. Turnover was 2.89 billion shares valued at RM2.17bil. There were 569 gainers, 294 losers and 341 counters unchanged.
Underpinning the key Asian markets were signs of progress in Sino-US trade negotiations and as US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated that the Fed would be patient about interest rate hikes, according to Reuters.
The ringgit is set for its biggest weekly gain since March as a rally in crude prices eases concern about Malaysia’s fiscal position, Bloomberg reported. US light crude oil rose 59 cents to US$53.18 and Brent gained 62 cents to US$62.30.
The ringgit rose 0.13% to the US dollar to 4.0938 and gained 0.09% to the pound sterling to 5.2170 while it was flat versus the euro at 4.7222. It dipped 0.1% to the Singapore unit at 3.0324.
The firmer sentiment was also also due to the November industrial output in November 2018, which rose faster than expected by 2.5%, above a Bloomberg survey of 2.3%.
At Bursa, chip makers climbed with burn-in tester Kesm the top gainer of the day, up 60 sen to RM9.20 while MPI added 26 sen to RM10.28 but Unisem fell 12 sen to RM3.11.
Maxis rose six sen to RM5.70 and added 0.82 of a point to the KLCI while Axiata and Digi eked out a one sen gain each to RM4.01 and RM4.44. TimeCom jumped 48 sen to RM8.50.
Dialog rose eight sen to RM2.88 and added 0.79 of a point to the KLCI, Petronas Daganagan was up 14 sen to RM26, Petronas Gas and Petronas Chemical were flat at RM18 and RM8.70.
Sapura Energy
and Bumi Armada added one sen each to 31 sen and 16.5 sen in active trade.
Consumer stocks closed higher with F&N up 54 sen to RM33.88, Dutch Lady 40 sen to RM61.40, Nestle 30 sen to RM145 and Ajinomoto 18 sen to RM18.50.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery rose RM7 to RM2,170 per tonne. Chin Teik and United Plantations added 20 sen each to RM7 and RM26 while PPB Group gained 16 sen to RM17.40, KL Kepong 14 sen to RM24.10, Sime Plantation five sen to RM5.10 and IOI Corp three sen to RM4.52. FGV jumped 7.5 sen to 86 sen.
Among the banks, Public Bank shed four sen to RM24.76, Maybank, AmBank and CIMB were flat at RM9.45, RM4.48 and 5.65 respectively. RHB Bank gained 11 sen to RM5.45.
Glove makers staged a mild rebound as some analysts turned positive. Top Glove rise 10 sen to RM4.80 and Hartalega seven sen to RM5.06.
MAHB lost 21 sen to RM7.99 and erased 0.61 of a point from the KLCI, IHH shed two sen to RM5.73 while Tenaga was flat at RM13.86.
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