FBM KLCI poised to end week on high note

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's benchmark stock index is poised to end the day at a fresh two-year high as boost in sentiment over US big technology stocks helped to lift buying interest in equities.

As the bell rang for the end of the early session, the FBM KLCI was up 6.13 points to 1,586.43, off a morning peak of 1,590.56, with gains over two-thirds of the index constituents.

The markets saw positive trading interest, underpinned by 511 gaining stocks compared to 413 decliners and 487 unchanged.

Turnover was 2.19 billion shares changing hands for RM1.53bil.

YTL-related counters remained in the lead with YTL Power rising 13 sen to RM4.74 and YTL Corp adding nine sen to RM3.25.

Tenaga Nasional rose 30 sen to RM12.32, PETRONAS Gas gained 18 sen to RM18.10, MISC added 14 sen to RM8.14 and Nestle climbed 30 sen to RM128.20.

Of actives, Ingeniuer dropped 0.5 sen to 12.5 sen, Epicon slid 3.5 sen to 44.5 sen and Dataprep was flat at 15 sen.

The closure of Japan's and mainland China's stock exchanges for national holidays have muted regional trading activity, even as investors look ahead of to a US jobs report scheduled for release in the evening.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.1% to 18,413 while South Korea's Kospi gained 0.2% to 2,688. Singapore's Straits Time Index rose 0.3% to 3,307.