KUALA LUMPUR: Sustained local institutional support for battered down but fundamentally strong blue chip companies saw the FBM KLCI climbing for the sixth day on Friday.
The firmer key Asian markets helped shore up local market sentiment. Fresh China data suggest the Sino-US trade war has yet to make a dent on the Chinese economy, Reuters reported.
At 5pm, the KLCI was up 18.36 points or 1.08% to 1,721.93, after adding 14.8 points on Thursday. Turnover improved to 3.27 billion shares valued at RM2.83bil.
The broader market was firmer with advancers leading decliners two to one or 605 gainers to 315 losers and 422 counters unchanged.
Dialog was the biggest mover among the KLCI stocks, gaining 19 sen to RM3.33 and pushing the KLCI up 1.9 points, the first time since it was included into the 30-stock index.
US light crude oil fell 41 cents to US$69.92 and Brent skidded US$1,11 to US$73.34.
Petronas Dagangan added 66 sen to RM25.66, Petronas Gas 30 sen to RM18.20 and Petronas Chemical nine sen to RM8.62.
Refiners Hengyuan and Petron, which had been under the radar since the heavy selling started after the May 9 shock General Election defeat by the Barisan Nasional, were among the top gainers.
Hengyuan rose 37 sen to RM6.44 and Petron 27 sen higher at RM7.46.
Among the banks, Hong Leong Bank rose 44 sen to RM18.90, CIMB nine sen to RM5.72, RHB Bank two sen to RM5.32 and Maybank one sen to RM9.51 while Public Bank was flat at RM23.
As for telcos, Axiata gained 11 sen to RM4.17 and nudged the KLCI up 1.77 points, Telekom Malaysia added 16 sen to RM3.62, Maxis seven sen to RM5.44 but Digi shed two sen to RM4.16.
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gained 19 sen to RM4.19, Genting Malaysia seven sen to RM4.95 and Genting 10 sen to RM8.62.
Among the consumer stocks, BAT was the top gainer for the day, up 80 sen to RM33.20, Heineken 34 sen to RM23.28 but Ajinomoto lost 30 sen to RM21.70, Carlsberg fell 24 sen to RM19.12 and Kawan 13 sen to RM2.22.
MRCB was the most active with 175 million shares done, sliding five sen to 69 sen as it gave up half of the previous day's gains.
George Kent added 11 sen to RM1.40, extending from the limit-up the previous day.
Both companies are involved the light rail transit three (LRT 3) project. The government's move to go ahead with the project despite slashing costs by nearly 50%, gave some hope.
However, crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM25 to RM2,161 – the lowest since late September 2015 on rising stockpiles, weaker demand and poor export outlook.
However, the fall in CPO prices did not dent investor interest in plantations.
IOI Corp and KL Kepong added four sen each to RM4.54 and RM24.28 and PPB Group two sen to RM19.78.
Sime Plantation was flat at RM5.29, Sime Darby gained two sen to RM2.39 while Sime Property shed one sen to RM1.22.
The ringgit weakened against the strengthening US dollar, falling 0.25% to 4.0510. However, the ringgit gained 0.38% against the pound sterling to 5.3185, inched up 0.13% to the euro to 4.7103 and advanced 0.15% versus the Singapore unit at 2.9617.
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