Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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ASIAN stocks traded cautiously on Friday with most of the key bellwether indices closing in positive territory. This followed positive lead from US markets overnight — although gains were then trimmed after the release of weak economic data from China.

Upbeat news on retail sales lifted major averages in the US last Thursday, paring steep losses from the previous day’s selloff. At closing bell, the Dow and S&P 500 were up 1.5% and 1.4% respectively. The better than forecasted data boosted confidence over the holiday shopping season, which is the most crucial time of the year for retailers.

Back home, the local stock market bucked the uptrend in other regional bourses, closing in negative territory on Friday. The local bourse has now ended in the red in four of the past five days.

The FBM KLCI index dropped by 0.66% to close at 1,733. Some 4 stocks fell for every one that rose, led by oil and gas stocks. Brent crude fell as low as $63.61 a barrel, the lowest in more than half a decade. Some 1.45 billion shares valued at RM1.8 billion changed hands.

My portfolio value declined by 0.36% to RM100,850 on Friday. The portfolio started on 8 July 2014 with a capital of RM100,000. Since then, it has outperformed the FBM KLCI by 9.3%, registering an annualised return of 2.0%.

Total profits currently stand at RM849.90.

I kept the portfolio unchanged.

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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 15, 2014.

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