KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia was lifted on Friday ahead of the tabling of Budget 2020 with the construction and technology sectors in the spotlight
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.05 points to 1,563.92. Trading volume was 1.14 billion shares valued at RM717.54mil. There were 428 advancing stocks versus 259 decliners and 355 unchanged.
Hours before the tabling of Budget 2020, Bursa Malaysia's construction index was seen rising 0.75%, breaching the 50-day simple moving average as investors pinned their hopes on government infrastructure projects.
The technology index, which saw profit-taking over two previous sessions following a surge earlier in the week, put in a positive performance of 0.42%.
Among individual stocks, MISC ended the early session 26 sen higher at RM8.30, after having retraced from a high of RM8.46 earlier in the day.
Meanwhile Aeon Credit
surged 36 sen to RM15.26, extending its advance for a second straight day.
Other top performers included Telekom Malaysia up 21 sen to RM3.60 and GCB adding 14 sen to RM4.52.
Declining counters included Nestle down 60 sen to RM144, Shangri-La falling 11 sen to RM5.18 and Allianz shedding 10 sen to RM13.90.
Most heavily traded stocks were Ekovest flat at 80.5 sen, Sapura Energy
flat at 26 sen and MNC down 0.5 sen to 2.5 sen.
Oil markets were on the rise after Opec lowered its 2019 global oil demand growth forecast, hinting that there may deeper supply cuts in the works.
US crude gained 31 cents to US$53.86 a barrel and Brent crude climbed 31 cents to US$59.41 a baarel.
Meanwhile. the ringgit showed slight optimism over the greenback, rising 0.1% to 4.1850.
It fell 1.6% against the pound sterling to 5.2114, which rallied on news that the EU may be willing offer the UK concessions to secure a Brexit deal.
The local currency was 0.1% lower against the Singapore dollar at 3.0480.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 2.05 points to 1,563.92. Trading volume was 1.14 billion shares valued at RM717.54mil. There were 428 advancing stocks versus 259 decliners and 355 unchanged.
Hours before the tabling of Budget 2020, Bursa Malaysia's construction index was seen rising 0.75%, breaching the 50-day simple moving average as investors pinned their hopes on government infrastructure projects.
The technology index, which saw profit-taking over two previous sessions following a surge earlier in the week, put in a positive performance of 0.42%.
Among individual stocks, MISC ended the early session 26 sen higher at RM8.30, after having retraced from a high of RM8.46 earlier in the day.
Meanwhile Aeon Credit

Other top performers included Telekom Malaysia up 21 sen to RM3.60 and GCB adding 14 sen to RM4.52.
Declining counters included Nestle down 60 sen to RM144, Shangri-La falling 11 sen to RM5.18 and Allianz shedding 10 sen to RM13.90.
Most heavily traded stocks were Ekovest flat at 80.5 sen, Sapura Energy

Oil markets were on the rise after Opec lowered its 2019 global oil demand growth forecast, hinting that there may deeper supply cuts in the works.
US crude gained 31 cents to US$53.86 a barrel and Brent crude climbed 31 cents to US$59.41 a baarel.
Meanwhile. the ringgit showed slight optimism over the greenback, rising 0.1% to 4.1850.
It fell 1.6% against the pound sterling to 5.2114, which rallied on news that the EU may be willing offer the UK concessions to secure a Brexit deal.
The local currency was 0.1% lower against the Singapore dollar at 3.0480.
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