KLCI ends week on a rally, oil prices soar on disruption fears

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI continued to pick up points at the onset of Budget 2020 and following the release of the government's economic outlook.

At 5pm, the index was up 4.97 points to 1,556.84 amid reports that the government was expected a slightly faster economic growth of 4.8% in 2020 as compared to 4.7% in 2019.

Over the five-day week, the index was down 0.83 points or 0.1%.

Trading volume on Friday was slightly improved over the previous session at 2.29 billion shares valued at RM1.6bil.

Tenaga Nasional contributed the most weight to the index's rally, gaining 22 sen to RM13.88, while MISC also put on 24 sen to RM8.28.

Measnwhile, top weighted Maybank rose five sen to RM8.44, Petronas Chemical advanced five sen to RM7.23 and Digi climbed five sen to RM4.69.

KLCI-linked stocks that slipped included Maxis down six sen to RM5.39, Public Bank down 10 sen to RM19.08 and IHH dropping two sen to RM5.65.

Top active counters of the day were Sapura Energy up one sen to 27 sen, Bumi Armada up two sen to 38.5, and Opcom up 5.5 sen to 77.5 sen.

In oil markets, prices jumped more than 2% after Iranian media said a state-owned oil tanker had been struck by missiles in the Red Sea near Saudi Arabia, raising the prospect of supply disruptions.

US crude soared 87 cents to US$54.46 a barrel and Brent crude climbed 81 cents to US$59.91 a barrel.

In currencies, the ringgit was up 0.1% against the greenback to 4.1840. It dropped 0.55% against the pound sterling at 5.2375 and was flat against the Singapore dollar at 3.0440.