KUALA LUMPUR: Local stocks inched higher on Friday, bucking decline in most Asian markets, as investors racked up banking stocks.
The FBM KLCI closed at an intraday high of 1,552.83, up 0.59% or 9.08 points, taking its full-week gains to 12.97 points, or 0.84%.
On the broader market, daily gainers at 521 outweigh the losers at 474 counters, while 518 remain unchanged. Volume was 4.5 billion shares, valued at RM4.82bil.
Among the banks, CIMB rose 17 sen to RM6.61, Hong Leong Bank added 10 sen to RM19.36, Maybank gained six sen to RM9.71 and Public Bank climbed four sen to RM4.27.
Telekom Malaysia jumped 51 sen to RM6.50 and single-handedly contributed 2.8401 points to the index.
On the broader market, Malaysia Airports rose 40 sen to RM9.40, Harrisons gained 23 sen to RM8.94 and HeiTech Padu added 17 sem to RM2.60.
Nestle slid 40 sen to RM119.40, Malaysian Pacific Industries
fell 30 sen to RM29.60 and Ajinomoto declined 14 sen to RM18.36.
On the forex market, the ringgit was down 0.39% against the greenback to 4.7043.
The local currency unit rose 0.21% against the pound sterling to 5.9925 and up 0.05% against the Singapore dollar at 3.5163.
US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 41 cents to US$80.85 and Brent declined 38 cents to US$85.04 per barrel.
Key gauges across the region ended broadly lower. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.26%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed down 1.42%, South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.91%, China’s CSI 300 Index added 0.22% and Singapore’s Straits Times Index declined 0.4%.
