Wednesday, December 8, 2010

KLCI near one-month high, CIMB lifts

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed higher, with mild buying picking up in banks and PLANTATION []s, sending the FBM KLCI up near a month's high on Wednesday, Dec 9.

The FBM KLCI rose 0.55% or 8.32 points at 1,510.06. Gainers led losers 458 to 310, while 277 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.08 billion shares valued at RM2.18 billion.

Key regional markets ended mixed while European markets opened mostly in the red. China and Hong Kong markets retreated as a drop in commodity prices hit resources plays and a selloff in US Treasuries hurt risky assets in Asian markets, according to Reuters.

But declines came on relatively light volumes which according to some market players suggested investors were taking risk off the table rather than turning overly bearish on the market, it said.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.90% to 10,232.33 and Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 0.34% to 3,202.80. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.43% to 23,092.52, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.95% to 2,848.55, the South Korean Kospi fell 0.35% to 1,955.72 and Taiwan's Taiex slipped 0.01% to 8,703.79.

At Bursa Malaysia, MTD Capital extended its gains on expectations it would gain from a toll rate hike in its Philippines expressway operations.'' It jumped 86 sen to RM7.91

Among the index-linked counters, CIMB rose 23 sen to RM8.70, pushing up the index by 4.02 points, Tenaga chalked up 14 sen to RM8.58, adding 1.44 points to the index.

BAT was up 38 sen to RM45.86, KLK rose 32 sen to RM21.90, Batu Kawan was up 28 sen to RM16.80, LPI Capital gained 24 sen to RM12.14, CIMB up 23 sen to RM8.70, AMMB added 16 sen to RM6.42 while Axiata was up six sen to RM4.73.

The main drag on the index was PPB, which fell 52 sen to RM17; DiGi fell 16 sen to RM24.64, MISC fell 15 sen to RM8.45 and Hong Leong Bank 13 sen to RM9.27. Tradewinds lost 24 sen to RM5.15 and Top Glove 17 sen to RM5.38.

Hartalega fell 13 sen to RM5.26 despite the management's statement that it had never been ordered to close, suspended, nor issued serious warnings of any kind over its operations.

Petronas Chemicals was the most active with 52 million shares, up two sen to RM5.41. Other actives included DRB-Hicom, Axiata, Careplus, Hubline, Petra Perdana, AirAsia and SAAG.


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