KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian shares and the ringgit rose for the second consecutive week, as sentiment improved on the back of an oil price rebound and sale of power assets by troubled state-run fund 1Malaysia Development to a Chinese consortium.

   The nation’s benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ended 0.03% lower at 1,682.59 points Friday. The index gained 1.2% this week, its biggest weekly advance in nearly two months. It has fallen 4.5% in 2015 so far.

   Tenaga Nasional, SapuraKencana Petroleum and IOI Corporation were amongst the largest gainers in the index for the week, while IHH Healthcare and RHB Capital declined.

   The ringgit fell for second successive session, declining 0.9% to 4.26 against the dollar. The currency rose 0.7% for the week and 0.9% so far in November. For 2015, the ringgit has fallen nearly 22%.

   “The ringgit recovered following the news of the buying of 1MDB’s power assets,” said Jingyi Pan, a research analyst at financial analysis firm FORECAST. “Nevertheless downward risk for ringgit and other Asian currencies persists into December as the likelihood of a Fed hike increases.”

   The local currency was amongst the best performing Asian currencies in November and the KLCI outperformed other Southeast Asian markets.

   The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan fell almost 1% in the week.

   Most Southeast Asian markets declined Friday, with the Philippine’s PSE Composite index and Singapore’s Strait Times index slumping 1.93% and 0.75%. Thailand’s SET index and Indonesia’s Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index fell 0.27% and 0.79%.

   Other markets across Asia also ended lower, dragged by a 5.5% slump in the Shanghai Composite Index. China’s stock markets slipped on reports that certain major brokerages were being probed for securities law violations and as industrial profits fell.  Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.87%. South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.14% and 0.3%.

   In Malaysia, 15 of the 30 KLCI constituents ended lower Friday, while overall declining issues outnumbered advancing ones 635 to 292.