KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips edged up in cautious trade on Monday, the last trading day of 2018, shored up by gains in Sime Darby and Tenaga Nasional.
At 9.33am, the KLCI was up 3.64 points or 0.22% to 1,695.71. Turnover was 250.09 million shares valued at RM108.34mil. There were 167 gainers, 54 losers and 117 counters unchanged.
Asian stocks crept higher as hints of progress on the Sino-US trade standoff provided a rare glimmer of optimism in what has been a rough year-end for equities globally, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.2%, but was still down 16% for the year. E-Mini future for the S&P 500 firmed 0.68%.
Japan's Nikkei was closed for a holiday having ended the year with a loss of 12%.
At Bursa, MAHB gained nine sen to RM8.39, Sime Darby and Tenaga eight sen each to RM2.44 and and RM13.64 while SP Setia and Bursa added seven sen each to RM2.52 and RM6.82.
Nestle was the top gainer, up 40 sen to RM147.80 in thin trade.
Scientex posted 25.9% lower net profit of RM53.67mil for the quarter ended Oct 31, as compared to RM72.4mil from a year earlier due to lower revenue from its property business.
Scientex fell 59 sen to RM8.56 and it was the top loser with 156,800 shares done.
PPB Group fell 20 sen to RM17.50, MISC 11 sen to RM6.47 and Hartalega
six sen to RM6.16.
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