Malaysian shares closed up 0.6 percent on Friday amid selective buying and improved sentiment on Wall Streets gains, dealers said. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index gained 5.06 points to 843.45. Volume was 301.11 million shares worth 487.10 million ringgit (132.26 million dollars). There were 264 gainers, 199 losers and 227 shares unchanged.
"The market is up but theres really nothing interesting about it," a dealer told Dow Jones Newswires. Deputy premier Najib Razak announced a 16.2-billion-dollar mini-budget Tuesday, saying the much bigger than anticipated spending plan would help cushion Malaysia from the impact of the global economic crisis.
But despite the new plan and a 1.9-billion-dollar stimulus package announced last year, he said the economy could still contract by up to 1.0 percent in 2009, dumping the earlier forecast of 3.5 percent growth. On the upside, KLK rose 4.0 percent to 10.40 ringgit while BAT inched up 0.6 percent to 44.00. Losers included Maybank, which closed down 1.5 percent at 4.00, and Telekom, which fell 0.5 percent to 3.48.