KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI rallied higher in Friday's afternoon sessions, hours before the tabling of Budget 2019, to end the week firmly above the 1,700 level.
The market ratcheted up gains along with a solid performance in regional markets as US President Donald Trump said he was looking forward to a deal with China at the G20 summit later this month.
Among China markets, the Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.7% to 2,676.48, the CSI 300 jumped 3.6% to 3,290.25 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 4.2% to 26,486.35.
Japan's Nikkei grew 2.6% to 22,243.66 and South Korea's Kospi grew 3.5% to 2,096.
As the Budget was announced in the final hour of trading, the local market held steady on news of an expansionary budget and declining fiscal deficit moving into 2019.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was up 6.95 points to 1,713.87. Turnover was 3.16 billion shares valued at RM2.53bil. Market breadth was overwhelmingly positive wihth 744 advancers versus 204 decliners and 305 counters unchanged.
Hong Leong Financial Group led the day's advance, rising RM1.06 to RM19.30. This was followed by Petronas Chemicls climbing 12 sen to RM9.48 and Sime Darby adding 12 sen to RM2.40.
On the declining end, Genting dropped 20 sen to RM7.20, IHH slipped four sen to RM4.96 and RHB slid six sen to RM5.25.
Most actively traded counters were Seacera rising 1.5 sen to 30.5 sen, Prestariang gaining 11.5 sen to 71 sen, Datasonic adding thee sen to 43 sen.
Among the top losing counters, ARK Resources
plummeted 15.5 sen to 38 sen. Turnover on the counter, however, was very low at 5,000 units.
In oil markets, prices fell further after the White House said it would grant several countries waivers on sanctions on Iran.
Benchmark crude oil was down 20 cents a barrel at US$72.69 while US light crude was 25 cents lower at US$63.44.
The ringgit rose 0.4% against the greenback to 4.1615 but fell 0.5% against the pound sterling at 5.4245 and 0.1% against the Singapore dollar at 3.3020.
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