Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Asian markets up on China PMI data

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI continued its upward trend and kicked off September strongly, reaching its highest level since Feb 14, 2008 in the morning session on Wednesday, Sept 1, lifted by gains in key blue chips, in particular banking stocks.

Asian stocks shrugged off a flat lead from Wall Street, reflecting belief that Asia's economic recovery could hold up relatively well compared to the US, which faces the possibility of a double-dip recession, according to Reuters.

China's official purchasing managers' index rose to 51.7 in August from a 17-month low of 51.2 in July, while Australia's economy grew a stronger-than-expected 1.2% in the second quarter, it said.

Nikkei 225 +0.86% 8,899.93 Hang Seng Index +0.37% 20,612.81 Shanghai Composite Index +0.14% 2,642.38 Taiwan Taeix +0.54% 7,657.51 Sotjh Korea's Kospi +1.24% 1,764.30 Singapore's Straits Times Index +0.81% 2,974.10 ''

''

At Bursa Malaysia, the 30-stock FBM KLCI was up 7.19 points to 1,429.68 at the mid-day break. The index had earlier risen to its intra-morning high of 1,436.73, surpassing the 1,436.10 close on Feb 14, 2008.

However, the broader market was cautious as losers beat gainers by 386 to 242, while 267 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 519.27 million shares valued RM1.05 billion.

Among the major gainers, KFCH rose 46 sen to RM11.26, Tenaga and LPI Capital added 14 sen each to RM9 and RM12.10. AMMB rose 13 sen to RM5.79, Maybank up 11 sen to RM8.50, Public Bank gained eight sen to RM12.12, Axiata up seven sen to RM4.54 while CIMB gained one sen to RM7.81.

UMW, QSR and KLCCP rose 10 sen each to RM6.70, RM4.51 and RM3.40, respectively, while Sime Darby and PLUS added four sen each to RM8.39 and RM4.24.

Lafarge Malayan Cement was the top loser and fell 45 sen to RM7.03. Lay Hong lost 23 sen to RM1.99, Nestle down 18 sen to RM39.80, Swee Joo fell 16.5
sen to 19.5 sen, DiGi down 16 sen to RM24.58,. Hai-O down 15 sen to RM2.99 while Hartalega lost 13 sen to RM7.62.

KNM was the most actively traded stock this morning with 32.7 million shares done. The counter fell 4.5 sen to 44 sen.

Other actives included Timecom, Axiata, JCY International, Maybank, Mithril, CIMB and Tenaga.




No comments:

Post a Comment