Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Asian markets up on fresh optimism

KUALA LUMPUR: Key regional markets, including Bursa Malaysia, advanced on Wednesday, Oct 13 on the back of the higher overnight close at Wall Street on expectations that the US Federal Reserve could once again flood markets with cheap cash to further boost growth.

On Bursa Malaysia, the 30-stock FBM KLCI rose 5.78 points to 1,429.35 at 10am, lifted by gains including at KL Kepong, RHB Capital, Petronas Dagangan and PLUS.

The index rose to a fresh high 1,493.57 earlier in the morning.

Gainers led losers by 322 to 116, while 205 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 201.67 million shares valued at RM278.88 million.

RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd said Tuesday's performance was not unexpected as it had forecasted for the index to chalk up greater heights, despite the ongoing profit-taking pressure.

With the absence of fresh buying leads, the local bourse lost its steam and turned lower from an intraday high of 1,493.29, it said.

"Given the weak technical readings on the chart, the FBM KLCI should continue to face follow-through profit-taking pressure in the near term.

"Nevertheless, as we reiterated earlier, as long as the index sustains at above the 10-day SMA of 1,474, we remain optimistic that buying support will likely return in the near term," it said.

The top gainer at mid-morning was Dutch Lady that added RM1.12 to RM19.12; KLK was up 52 sen to RM18.40, Star added 28 sen to RM4, DiGi was up 20 sen to RM24.50, RHB Capital gained 17 sen to RM771, Petronas Dagangan and PPB Group rose 16 sen each to RM11.08 and RM17.94, Batu Kawan up 12 sen to RM12.92 and PLUS added nine sen to RM4.36.

Among the decliners, Genting fell 10 sen to RM10.50, Kluang lost nine sen to RM2.30, Nestle down eight sen to RM44.50, CIMB lost four sen to RM8.06 while Gopeng, Pos Malaysia and P I E fell three sen each to RM1.14. RM3.27 and RM4.03, respectively.

JCY International was the most actively traded counter with 16.7 million shares done. The stock added six sen to RM1.01. Other actives included Karambunai, Takaso, CIMB and PLUS.

At the regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.86% to 9,469.47, Singapore's Straits Times Index added 0.79% to 3,174.21, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.53% to 2,856.59, the South Korean Kospi Index up 0.43% to 1,876.00, Taiwan's Taiex up 0.24% to 8,109.55 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 0.7% higher at 23,290.30.


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