KUALA LUMPUR: The local market moved cautiously ahead following positive regional sentiment of the back of a planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and North KOrean leader Kim Jong Un to discuss a halt to nuclear testing.
The prospect of geopolitical stability brightened the mood after a week of trepidation leading up to Trump's Thursday signing of a steel tariffs order that some feared would lead to a global trade war.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.87 points to 1,842.49 points. Turnover was 1.19 billion shares with a value of RM787.11mil. There were 420 advancers versus 369 decliners and 375 counters unchanged.
Nestle continued to lift the index, rising RM5.90 to RM145.60. Genting also rose, adding 14 sen to RM8.99.
IHH Healthcare added three sen to RM6.06 while MISC gained five sen to RM6.80.
Banking stocks were mixed with CIMB rising one sen to RM7.14, Ambank putting on five sen to RM4.02, and Public Bank losing two sen to RM22.98, Hong Leong Bank dropping 16 sen to RM18.40 and RHB sliding two sen to RM5.29.
Plantation counters were also mixed; PPB gained four sen to RM24.24 and KL Keping added six sen to RM25.42, while Sime Darby Plantation
lost one sen to RM5.45 and IOI was unchanged at RM4.83.
On the broader market, Lotte Chemicals Titan gained 23 sen to RM6.02 while refiner Hengyuan put on 37 sen to RM9.59 and Petron Malaysia rose 79 sen to RM10.24
British American Tobacco slid back 46 sen to RM26, Dutch Lady lost 50 sen to RM67.20 and Panasonic Malaysia dropped 18 sen to RM34.50.
Oil prices regained some ground on Friday on news of the US-Pyongyang meeting.
WTI crude rose nine cents to US$60.21 a barrel while Brent crude gained 11 cents to US$63.75 a barrel.
In currencies, investors fled emerging market currencies in favour of safe havens due to fears of trade tensions.
The ringgit weakened 0.1% against the US dollar to 3.9125 but strengthened 0.53% against the pound sterling at 5.3979 and 0.09% against the Singapore dollar at 2.9679.
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