Friday, November 26, 2010

Korean conflict, Europe woes drag KLCI into red

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips on Bursa Malaysia closed lower on Friday, Nov 26 as sentiment took a hit from the Europe debt crisis, worries about the conflict between on the Korean peninsula and China's tightening measures.

While Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd, the largest initial public offer at RM41.6 billion, did provide some boost to market sentiment, external worries saw some profit taking toward the later part of the day.

The FBM KLCI closed 4.44 points down at 1,492.05. Turnover was 1.57 billion shares valued at RM4.9 billion, the highest ever, mainly due to the high volume of PetChem shares transacted.

PetChem saw 630 million shares done, which accounted for about 40% of the total trading value. It opened on a strong note at RM5.71, which was 10% or 51 sen above its institutional offer price of RM5.20. Its retail price was RM5.04. However, intra-day profit taking saw the integrated petrochemicals producer ending the day off its day's best, notching an 11 sen gain at RM5.31.

The overall breadth of the market displayed some caution among investors, with declining counters beating advancers 562 to 224.

At the key regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.4% to 10,039.56 while the Hang Seng Index shed 0.77% to 22,877.25, Shanghai Composite Index gave up 0.92% to 2,871.70 and Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 0.04% to 3,158.08.

At Bursa Malaysia, CICB fell the most, down 26 sen to 54 sen while Shell gave up 24 sen to RM10.56 in thin trade.

PPB, which had a brief respite on Thursday, fell again, weighed down by its weaker earnings, shedding 22 sen to RM18.36. YTL fell 20 sen to RM8.32 and Boustead 15 sen to RM5.29. AMMB lost 14 sen to RM6.08.

However, QSR was the top gainer, surging 59 sen to RM6.20 after Carlyle Asia Investment Advisors Ltd offered to acquire all of Kulim's shares in QSR and all the outstanding shares at RM6.70 a share. Kulim rose 40 sen to RM12.40, QSR-WB 32 sen to RM3.20 and KFCH six sen to RM4.01.

AirAsia rose six sen to RM2.61 on expectations of better earnings in the fourth quarter.


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