REGIONAL markets traded mixed on Friday despite overnight gains on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.47% to close at 17,895.22 while the S&P 500 rose 1.26% to 2,065.95.

Bellwether indices in Australia, Taiwan and Laos lost between 0.17% and 0.94%. However, Japan bucked the trend to close firmly in positive territory with the Nikkei 225 gaining 1.39% to close above 19,000 for the first time since April 2000.

In other news, crude oil prices remained flattish, with Brent crude and WTI crude trading around $57 per barrel and $47 per barrel, respectively, at the time of writing.

Closer to home, the benchmark FBM KLCI eventually closed in negative territory after see-sawing between gains and losses. The index ended 0.29% lower at 1,781.75. Market breadth was also negative, with decliners outpacing gainers by around 1.3 to 1. Meanwhile, the ringgit strengthened slightly against the greenback at RM3.68.

I added the following stocks to my portfolio on Friday after they exhibited positive momentum.

Supercomnet: 64,500 shares at 15.5 sen

Superlon: 10,500 shares at 94.5 sen

I continued to hold Sunsuria (-3.7%).

I did not sell any stock on Friday.

My portfolio now has a total value of RM 99,485.20 and is down 0.5% since inception. However, it has still outperformed the FBM KLCI by 5.3%.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 16, 2015.