Blue chips march higher as Petronas Gas, MISC, HL Bank climb

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips rose in early Friday trade, aided by gains in Petronas Gas, MISC and Hong Leong Bank, as investors’ risk appetite improved due to positive news from key Asian markets.

At 9.21am, the FBM KLCI was up 6.10 points or 0.37% to 1,647.43. Turnover was 197.42 million shares valued at RM99.67mil. There were 224 gainers, 107 losers and 197 counters unchanged.

Asian shares posted narrow gains on revived hopes of progress in US-China trade talks, while global bond yields moved higher after a prolonged slide on worries about the economic outlook, Reuters reported.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1% while Japan’s Nikkei rose 1%.

Oil prices rose on Friday, pushed up by ongoing supply cuts led by Opec and US sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, which have given crude markets the biggest first quarter price push since 2009.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 24 cents to US$59.54 per barrel at 0100 GMT.

Meanwhile, Kenanga Research said he outlook of the KLCI remains bearish as its 20-and-50 day SMAs crossed below its 100-day SMA.

“However, we do not discount the possibility of a short technical rebound, should the RSI fall into the oversold territory.

“Should a technical rebound happen, we look towards 1,660 (R1) and 1,700 (R2) as resistance levels. Conversely, support levels can be identified at 1,630 (S1) and 1,615 (S2),” it said.

Nestle rose RM1.30 to RM147.70, Carlsberg 34 sen to RM26.88, F&N 26 sen to RM35.06 while Heineken gained 14 sen to RM23.58. The stocks were very thinly traded.

KL Kepong gained 14 sen to RM24.80 while United Plantations added 12 sen to RM27.50.

MISC and Petronas Gas advanced 14 sen each to RM6.82 and RM17.82 while Hong Leong Bank added 12 sen to RM20.44.

GETS surged 11sen to 24 sen with 1.69 million shares done.

MAHB fell eight sen to RM7.19, Public Bank six sen to RM23.22 while Air Asia lost five sen to RM2.65.

Source : TheStar