Bursa ends fifth straight week of gains

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia held firm on Friday as other Asian markets felt the effects of escalating trade tensions despite China's efforts to support its local businesses.

The Shanghai Composite Index closed flat at 2,795.31, the CSI300 eked out a 0.22% gain to 3,405.02 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.8% to 28,366.62

Japan's Nikkei fell 1.3% to 22,298.08 as semiconductor-related counters dropped on Morgan Stanley's downgrade on the US chip sector. South Korea's Kospi, meanwhile, fell nearly 1% to 2,282.79

Back home, the FBM KLCI edged up 0.8 points to 1,805.75 at market close. Trading volume was 2.19 billion shares with a value of RM2.05bil. There were 402 gainers to 487 decliners and 438 counters unchanged.

Hartalega led gains with a 22 sen rise to RM6.60 while MAHB gained 28 sen to to RM9.86 and IHH added five sen to RM5.75.

Among telcos Maxis gained three sen to RM5.79, while Digi slipped one sen to RM4.70 and Axiata fell two sen to RM4.50. 

On the losing end of the index, MISC shed 10 sen to RM6.18, while Genting dropped four sen to RM5.25 and Genting Malaysia slid five sen to RM8.75.

On the broader market, MRCB gained four sen to 87 sen, Foundpac picked up three sen to 41 sen and Frontken added 1.5 sen to 71.5 sen.

Far East lost 48 sen to RM14, Scientex dropped 20 sen to RM8.45 and Nestle fell 20 sen to RM147.80.

The trade conflict lent a negative effect to oil prices, offsetting fears of tightening supply caused by US sanctions on Iran.

WTI crude slid five cents to US$66.76 a barrel while Brent crude shed four cents to US$72.03 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit slipped 0.3% against a strengthening dollar at 4.0860. It gained 0.7% against the pound sterling at 5.2130 and 0.3% against the Singapore dollar at 2.9804.