KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips snapped their two straight days of losses on Friday, underpinned by fund buying of key stocks including CIMB, Genting Bhd
and Sime Darby as sentiment improved in line with key markets and a recovery in crude oil prices.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was up 5.28 points or 0.32% to 1,663.44. Turnover was 1.68 billion shares valued at RM1.946bil. There were 335 gainers, 492 losers and 342 stocks unchanged.
Stock markets gained for the third day in five on Friday as G20 policymakers meeting in Shanghai sought common ground on how to reboot a struggling global economy in the face of renewed financial and political risks, Reuters reported.
Chinese and other Asian stock markets made guarded gains and Europe's major markets were all up by around 2%.
US light crude oil recovered 54 cents to US$33.61 and Brent added 34 cents to US$35.63.
The ringgit was stronger against the US dollar and Singapore dollar but weakened against pound sterling. The ringgit was at 4.2130 to the greenback from 4.2245 and firmed up to 3.0067 to the Singapore dollar from 3.0090.
A recovery in the pound sterling after several days of losses due to worries about Britain’s exit from the EU saw the ringgit slipping to 5.8958 from 5.8864.
At Bursa Malaysia, CIMB gained 22 sen to RM4.47 and pushed the KLCI up 3.19 points as investors were upbeat about its outlook.
AmBank added 16 se to RM4.50. It posted earnings of RM300.15mil in the third quarter ended Dec 21, 2015 on the back of RM2.116bil in revenue on weaker business sentiment and margin compression.
Public Bank, which had reported a recorded RM5bil in earnings in the FY15 recently, added eight sen to RM18.46. Hong Leong Bank was flat at RM13.12 and RHB Cap shed seven sen to RM5.35 while Maybank shed 11 sen to RM8.53.
Genting Bhd climbed 24 sen to RM8 while Genting Malaysia was flat at RM4.20. Tenaga was unchanged at RM13.18.
Among the oil and gas stocks, Petronas Gas rose 28 sen to RM22.18 and added nearly one point to the KLCI. Petronas Dagangan gained 20 sen to RM25.14, Petronas Chemicals fell eight sen to RM6.78 while SK Petro was up six sen to RM1.95.
Petron Malaysia skidded 98 sen to RM6 with volume rising to 6.24 as investors took profit despite the firmer financial results.
Crude palm oil for third-month delivery fell RM5 to RM2,530. Sime Darby rose 11 sen to RM7.71 and nudged the KLCI up 1.18 points, PPB Group gained 24 sen to RM16.06, KL Kepong was flat at RM24 and IOI Corp shed three sen to RM4.77.
Axiata was the biggest drag on the KLCI, falling 18 sen to RM5.80 and erasing 2.7 points from the KLCI. Maxis lost three sen to RM6.23, TM fell two sen to RM6.62 but Digi added three sen to RM5.
Ge Shen fell 50 sen to RM2.05 after its lacklustre results while glove makers Hartalega and Kossan lost 25 sen each to RM4.60 and RM6.34.
Among the key regional markets,
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 16,188.41;
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 2.52% to 19,364.15;
CSI 300 was up 1% to 2,94.03;
Shanghai’s Composite Index gained 0.95% to 2,767.21;
Shenzhen Composite fell 0.12% to 1,736.54;
Hang Seng China Enterprise was up 2.06% to 8,034.30;
Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.54% to 8,411.16;
South Korea’s Kospi inched up 0.08% to 1,920.16 and
Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 1.77% to 2,649.38.
Spot gold shed 14 cents to US$1,232.77.
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