KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of Maxis, SapuraKencana Petroleum and Petronas Chemicals underpinned the  FBM KLCI firm performance on Friday amid the firmer crude oil prices but the ringgit weakened against the key currencies.

At 5pm, the KLCI was up 5.35 points or 0.32% to 1,684.15. Turnover was 2.02 billion shares valued at RM1.89bil. There were 487 gainers, 314 losers and 397 counters unchanged.

Emerging stocks hit new one-year highs on Friday and headed for their fifth straight week of gains, as below-forecast Chinese data stirred expectations that Beijing would add to the stimulus largesse of developed countries' central banks, Reuters reported.

The ringgit weakened against the major currencies and was quoted at 4.0280 against the US dollar compared with 4.0085 the previous day; it was weaker against the pound sterling at 5.2154 from 5.1892; declined against the Singapore dollar to 2.9892 from 2.9812 and was at 4.4896 compared with the Euro from 4.4641.

Malaysia's economy grew at a slower pace of 4% in the second quarter ended June 30, 2016 from a year ago and from the first quarter. The decline was due to the weaker net exports. For 2016, the central banks expects growth to be between 4% and 4.5%.

US light crude oil rose 36 cents to US$43.85 and Brent gained 34 cents to US$46.38 after a Saudi oil minister hinted at possible joint action between producers to stabilise prices and the International Energy Agency said it expected oversupply to start easing soon, according to Reuters.

SK Petro rose six sen to RM1.50, the most in recent weeks, on fresh newsflow and firmer crude oil prices, pushing the KLCI up 0.61 of a point. 

SK Petro has seen very positive newsflow in recent days, winning on a major contract for the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) from TANAP Gogalgaz Iletim A.S. worth RM510mil.

TANAP is located offshore in the Dardanelles Strait in the Sea of Marmara in Turkey. It also marks SapKen’s maiden foray into Europe as part of its global footprint.

Petronas Chemicals added four sen to RM6.68, Petronas Dagangan gained four sen to RM23.44 and Petronas Gas two sen to RM22.18.

Maxis was the biggest mover among the KLCI stocks, up 12 sen to RM6.37 and adding 1.53 points to the KLCI. Axiata was up three sen to Rm5.75, Digi one sen to RM4.98 and Telekom was flat at RM6.80.

Crude plam oil for third month delivery jumoped RM45 to RM2,529 – the highest since June 13 – as supplies declined. 

Heavyweight Sime Darby rose three sen to RM7.99, KL Kepong two sen to RM23.26, IOI Corp one sen to RM4.39 but PPB Group lost four sen to RM16.02 after its Singapore associate Wilmar sunk into the red.

Among the banks, Public Bank and Ambank rose four sen each to RM19.70 and RM4.44, Maybank and RHB Bank one sen each to RM8.01 and RM4.99 while Hong Leong Bank was unchanged at RM13.20.

Power giant Tenaga lost six sen to RM14.52 and erased 0.57 of a point from the KLCI on some profit taking. 

Gas Malaysia added 13 sen to RM2.54. CIMB Equities Research is retaining its Reduce call on Gas Malaysia but with a higher sum-of-parts target price of RM2 to reflect the higher cash balance.

Consumer stocks came under some profit taking with Nestle reversing into the red, down 40 sen to RM79.40, F&N fell 30 sen to RM24.70, Dutch Lady 24 sen down at RM63.66 and Carlsberg lost 16 sen to RM14.96. However, BAT rose 32 sen to RM51.32.

HSS Engineers, which was listed on Wednesday, ended up 1.5 sen to 65.5 sen.