KUALA LUMPUR (May 25): The FBM KLCI rose 1.09% at midday break as investors appeared to take heart from assurances from the government on how it plans to tackle the economy, going forward.

The Malaysian government will be transparent about its financial numbers, whether the market likes it or not, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI rose 19.54 points to 1,795.20.

Gainers led losers by 287 to 241, while 590 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.23 billion shares valued at RM1.17 billion.

Top gainers included Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, United Plantations Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Apex Healthcare Bhd, Genting Malaysia Bhd, Axiata Group Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd and Genting Bhd.

The actives included NetX Holdings Bhd, Sapura Energy Bhd, My E.G. Services Bhd, YTL Power International Bhd, Borneo Oil Bhd, YTL Corp Bhd and Velesto Energy Bhd.

The losers included Nestle (M) Bhd, Lii Hen Industries Bhd, Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd, Heveaboard Bhd, MISC Bhd, Rapid Synergy Bhd, Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd and MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd.

Asian shares were slightly weaker on Friday, amid fragile market sentiment after U.S. President Donald Trump called off a key summit with North Korea, though investor concerns were softened by expectations the two countries may still continue dialogue, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked down. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.65%. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.3%, Reuters said. 

Affin Hwang Capital Research said US stocks clawed back losses and early declines on Thursday, sparked by cancellation of the US-North Korea summit. 

It said investors prefer to stay on the sideline and shift their focus to safe haven assets like gold. Gold surged more than 1% in overnight trade.

“Ringgit remains weak, in line with weakness in crude oil prices and firmer US dollar. Currently ringgit is hovering around RM3.981/US$.

“In the local market, the FBM KLCI continued drifting lower, losing almost 29 points yesterday.

“Expectation is that the FBMKLCI Index might open soft again today, in tandem with global market, amidst the government debt situation. Nonetheless, the fundamental outlook of Malaysian economy is anticipated to remain strong, thus weakness in the market should be capitalised by investors via accumulating good quality stocks,” the research house said.