KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips eked out marginal gains early Friday ahead of the release of the 2017 Budget proposals at 4pm while key Asian markets slipped.
Economists expect the economy to grow between 4% and 4.5% next year, which is similar to the current year due to the weak and fragile global growth. They are also expecting the government to maintain the same level of corporate and individual income taxes as the government seeks the reduce fiscal deficit to 3% next year.
At 9.15am, the FBM KLCI was up 0.7% to 1,667.88. Turnover was 150.07 million shares valued at RM49.68mil. There were 121 gainers, 109 losers and 196 counters unchanged.
Reuters reported MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.2%. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.4% and Australian stocks shed 0.3%. Japan's Nikkei bucked the trend and rose 0.2%, brushing a six-month high, as the yen weakened against the dollar.
Oil prices were stable on Friday, weighed down by a stronger dollar but supported by signs fuel markets are balancing after two years of oversupply.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was trading at US$50.62 a barrel at 0050 GMT, 1 cent below its last settlement. International Brent crude oil futures were up 3 cents at US$51.41 per barrel.
At Bursa Malaysia, Genting Bhd
added six sen to RM8.01 with just 100 shares done.
Penny stocks Cepatwawasan, Milux and MHC rose in active trade. Cepatwawsan added 11 sen to 80 sen, Milux and MHC gained five sen each to 92 sen and 87.5 sen.
Among consumer counters, Nestle rose 22 sen to RM78.40 with 100 shares done but BAT lost 40 sen to RM48.10 with 200 shares traded.
Hong Leong Bank fell eight sen to RM13.20, Masteel 2.5 sen lower at 93.5 sen and Jerasia Capital lost 2.5 sen to 66.5 sen, extending its decline for the second day after the price surge.
Superlon and KESM shed two sen each to RM2.46 and RM9.76.
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