KUALA LUMPUR: Equities on the Malaysian stock market found support ahead of the weekend, with investors hoping for upcoming corporate results to provide fresh leads.
After six days of losses, the FBM KLCI bounced 7.35 points higher in Friday morning trade to 1,531.93.
Despite the return of buying interest to blue chips, the broader market remained nearly evenly spread with advancing issues slightly pipping decliners at a ratio of 1.06-to-1.
Volume was 1.56 billion shares changing hands for RM1.12bil.
Financial heavyweights, which were heavily sold down in the previous session, rebounded. Maybank gained six sen to RM9.88, CIMB rose 11 sen to RM6.96 and Public Bank climbed nine sen to RM4.39.
Kuala Lumpur Kepong added 26 sen to RM19.88 after its results announcement yesterday, while Sunway Construction surged 16 sen to RM5.31.
Meanwhile, Main Market debutant Eco-Shop topped the morning's actives list with 156.56 million shares done. The dollar-store retailer jumped eight over its initial public offering price to RM1.21.
In regional markets, markets made a cautious comeback from the heavy selling in the previous day as investors were spooked by soaring US Treasury yields triggered by fears of a US tax-cut bill.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.43% to 37,144 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.58% to 23,679.
China's composite index rose 0.1% to 3,382. Singapore's Straits Times index was down 0.18% to 3,873.
