THE local bourse went through sporadic gains and losses in the past five days to close in the red on Friday as a result of heavy losses on oil and gas counters, particularly Petronas Dagangan and Uzma.

This came as a result of OPEC’s decision to refrain from cutting oil production, which caused global oil prices to plunge. Brent crude traded at only $71.95 per barrel while WTI crude fell to $68 per barrel.

On Friday, the FBM KLCI index declined by 0.49% to close at 1,820.90. Market breadth was negative with losers outweighing gainers 2.5 to one.

Slumping oil prices also affected most European stocks on Friday, causing energy stocks to take a hit. In contrast, Chinese stocks rallied to a high, as falling oil prices are expected to augur well for transport companies.

My portfolio value declined in line with the FBM KLCI’s downtrend, with total returns decreasing by 1.08% to RM103,495.

The portfolio started on 8 July 2014 with a capital of RM100,000. Since then, it has outperformed the FBM KLCI by 6.8%, and has registered an annualised return of 7.5%.

Total profits currently stand at RM 2,969.

Both the stocks in  my portfolio, Willowglen MSC and Crescendo remained unchanged on Friday.

 I kept the portfolio unchanged.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 1, 2014.