KUALA LUMPUR (March 17): The FBM KLCI extended its gains in early trade this morning and crossed the 1,740-point level, lifted by select blue chips.

At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was up 5.22 points to 1,742.36.

The early gainers included Teck Guan Perdana Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, Oriental Holdings Bhd, Hai-O Enterprise Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd, PPB Group Bhd, UMW Holdings Bhd, Fraser& Neave Holdings Bhd and Yoong Onn Corporation Bhd.

Asian stocks crawled higher in early trade on Friday, set for its best week since September, while the dollar continued the slide that began after the Federal Reserve indicated it was unlikely to speed up monetary tightening, according to Reuters.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six trade-weighted peers, retreated 0.1 percent to 100.26. It hit a five-week low on Thursday, and is down almost 1 percent for the week, it said.

JF Apex Securities Research in a market preview today said U.S. stocks closed mostly lower Thursday as modest gains in financial stocks failed to offset declines in health care and utilities stocks.

It said meanwhile, European markets closed higher after the defeat of the populist anti-European Union candidate in the Dutch election.

“On the local market, the FBM KLCI soared nearly 20 points or 1.15% to 1737.14 points yesterday.

“We expect the local bourse to take a breather and hover between 1700-1750 levels,” it said.