KLCI perks up on Sime Plantation, KLK’s gains

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips managed to reverse out of the early losses on Friday as fund buying of Sime Plantation and KL Kepong provided an upbeat outlook, in line with key Asian markets.

At 9.23am, the FBM KLCI was up 2.49 points or 0.16% to 1,566.07. Turnover was 328.77 million shares valued at RM130.98mil. There were 230 gainers, 150 losers and 247 counters unchanged.

Asian stocks held firm as US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric kept investors’ hopes up on a trade deal with China, while oil sat near two-month highs after producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed on further output cuts, Reuters reported.

Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.28% and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.19%. Australian shares rose 0.24%, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.57%.

Trump said on Thursday that US-China trade talks are “moving right along,” striking an upbeat tone despite a lack of agreement over whether existing tariffs should be dropped as part of a deal.

However, Stephen Innes, chief Asia market strategist at AXI Trader pointed out the prospect of a US-China trade deal remains the main factor sustaining the equity market rally.

“Still, investors are forced to keep pace with the rapid shifts in the US-China Phase One deal. They are attempting to make sense of the many comments – official and press ‘sources’ – on whether we’re closing in on a contract or not.

“But at the end of another week, we are no closer to signing a deal than last. Ultimately investors will remain hostage to the shifting ‘winds of trade war’ in this extremely high stakes game of risk, ” he cautioned.

At Bursa, foreign funds were net sellers at RM123.5mil while local institutions were net buyers at RM121.3mil and retail investors at RM2.2mil.

KL Kepong rose 40 sen to RM24.14 and Sime Plantation 11 sen to RM5.26 while IJM Plantation added eight sen to RM1.95.

MISC gained 15 sen to RM8.30, SAM Engineering nine sen to RM8.08, Revenue Group eight sen to RM2.02, GHL System seven sen to RM1.39 and LFE Corp six sen to 24 sen.

SAPURA ENERGY was unchanged at 26.5 sen with 12.11 million shares done.

Teck Guan lost 11 sen to RM1.28 while HL Bank, Heineken and Aeon Credit lost 10 sen each to RM16.80, RM26 and RM14.68 respectively. Telekom lost seven sen to RM3.84, Daibochi six sen to RM2.16.

Source: TheStar