KUALA LUMPUR: Fund buying of Maxis enabled the telco to help push blue chips higher in early Friday trade as the FBM KLCI broke past the key 1,700 level.

At 9.13am, the KLCI was up 11.88 points or 0.7% to 1,706.09. Turnover was 172.04 million shares valued at RM103.03mil. There were 224 gainers, 72 losers and 178 counters unchanged.

Asian share markets rose as hopes for a thaw in Sino-US trade relations gave Wall Street a fillip, though there were conflicting reports on the prospects for an actual agreement, Reuters reported.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was ahead 0.26% in early trade, while Japan's Nikkei added 0.2%.

At Bursa, Maxis rose 13 sen to RM5.53, the biggest gains in recent weeks.

HLFG added 20 sen to RM19.20. Maybank Investment Bank Research said HLFG would undoubtedly provide cheaper exposure to HL Bank while offering the rest of its businesses (life insurance, general insurance and investment banking) for free.

Nestle extended its gains, up RM1.50 to RM145.90 and F&N 30 sen to RM33.30.

Apex Healthcare gained 18 sen to RM8.28. Public Invest Research is retaining its earnings estimates for Apex Healthcare and maintains Neutral with target price of RM7.58 based on 15 times multiple to FY19 EPS.

KESM added 20 sen to RM11.12 and Dufu 13 sen to RM3.81.

Batu Kawan fell the most, down 28 sen to RM16.28, Suiwah was down eight sen to RM2.11, Aeon Credit six sen to RM15.74 while Latitude Tree lost five sen to RM4.05.

Tune Protect lost 4.5 sen to 68.5 sen. CIMB Equities Research sees low profit growth visibility for Tune Protect's travel insurance business in 2019 which was a drag on its net profit for the nine months ended Sept 30.