KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips advanced early Friday as investor sentiment was shored up by the firmer ringgit but non-FBM KLCI stock, AirAsia was in focus after its splendid first quarter results.
At 10am, the KLCI was up 1.62 points or 0.1% to 1,632.71. Turnover was 366.87 million shares valued at RM225.27mil. There were 200 gainers, 282 losers and 247 counters unchanged.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Research said KLCI may test the 1,640 resistance level again, given its improving technical oscillators, recent strong rebound in crude oil prices from monthly low of US$43 a barrel on May 9 and recovering Ringgit after weakened to a low of RM4.13 to the US$ on May 24.
“However, any rebound might be capped near 1,640 to 1,650 territories as the ongoing results reporting season has, thus far, leaned towards disappointing tone.
“Ahead of the June 2, OPEC meeting and expectations of oil prices to continue to break the US$50 psychological barrier, the O&G stocks will be back in the spotlight,” it said.
Oil futures dipped further in early Asian trade on Friday, finding resistance at the US$50 a barrel mark as investors worried higher prices could reactivate shuttered crude output, adding to global oversupply.
US crude fell seven cents to US$49.41 a barrel. It touched US$50.21 earlier on Thursday, its highest since early October. Brent fell nine cents to US$49.50, retreating from $50.51, its highest since early November.
At Bursa, BAT was the top gainer, up RM1.30 to RM50.50 while Dutch Lady
added RM1 to RM56.12.
AirAsia rose 19 sen to RM2.31 with 32.91 million shares done. Its call warrants, AirAsia-C33 added four sen to 21 sen. The positive outlook also boosted AirAsia X as its shares climbed 0.5 sen to 39.5 sen and the warrants edged up one sen to 28.5 sen.
Other gainers were Ajiya, up 15 sen to RM3.60, Old Town 11 sen to RM1.55 and UMW 10 sen to RM5.10.
O&C Resources gained three sen to 72 sen in active trade despite a caution issued by Bursa Malaysia Securities.
However, Versatile Creative fell 13 sen to RM1.55 as speculators backed off after ramping up the share price.
KLK fell the most, down 24 sen to RM22.92 with just 200 shares done. Petronas Gas lost 24 sen also to RM21.36 with 300 units traded.
Wellcall lost 10 sen to RM2.27 and HCK Capital was down nine sen to RM2.70 after the previous day’s advance.
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