KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas-linked stocks pushed the FBM KLCI higher in early trade on Friday amid the continued volatile political situation while investors awaited the second quarter (2Q) data at noon.
At 9.10am, the FBM KLCI was up 4.85 points or 0.32% to 1,506.82. Turnover was 278.01 million shares valued at RM107.94mil. There were 208 gainers, 144 losers and 262 counters unchanged.
Bloomberg reported Asian shares were steady early Friday as the spread of the delta Covid-19 variant and China’s regulatory curbs restrained sentiment despite another record high close on Wall Street.
Equities edged up in Japan and Australia but fell in South Korea. US contracts wavered after the S&P 500 hit a fresh peak and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose.
Bank Negara is scheduled to release the second quarter GDP at midday.
AmBank Group Research expects GDP for 2Q to hover around 11%-13%. The research house has reiterated the full-year GDP at 4%-4.5%.
RHB Research sees growth of around 15.0% YoY versus the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 12.7%.
AmBank Research said Bursa Malaysia’s transactions showed local institutions bought a net position of RM39mil. Local retail and foreign investors held on to their net seller positions at RM13.1mil and RM25.9mil, respectively.
Petronas Gas rose 14 sen to RM15.88 and Petronas Dagangan 10 sen to RM18.70.
Plantations also advanced with KL Kepong added 26 sen to RM19.40 and PPB Group 22 sen to RM18.40.
Semicon and tech related stocks continued to dominate the gainers list as Vitrox added 38 sen to RM19.32, SAM Engineering rode on the coattails to climbed 36 sen to RM14.28, Genetec 30 sen to RM26.80 and Widetec 13 sen to RM4.17.
However, KESM fell 16 sen to RM12.20, Pentamaster three sen to RM5.75.
RCE Capital’s strong earnings saw it climb 10 sen to RM18.70.
Opcom added five sen to 57 sen in active trade.
Lambo-OR tumbled 12 sen to 0.5 sen, OIB three sen to 83 sen, LCTitan three sen also to RM2.47.