Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Plantations rally hit a bump

KUALA LUMPUR: PLANTATION [] stocks, which had rallied in recent weeks in line with the surge in crude palm oil (CPO) prices, hit a mild bump on Wednesday, Dec 15 as investors decided to lock in gains.

At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was down 1.48 points to 1,509.10. Turnover was 1.12 billion shares valued at RM1.76 billion. Decliners led advancers 439 to 330 while 287 stocks were unchanged.

Crude palm oil futures for February delivery fell RM11 to RM3,669 per tonne.

Among key regional markets, investors' mood was dampened by the'' Federal Reserve's comments that highlighted the weakness of the US recovery.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 455 points or 1.95% to 22,975.35, Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.54% to 2,911.41 while Japan's Nikkei 225 eased 0.07% to 10,309.78.

Reuters reported Indonesia's stock market fell to a two-week low, led by banks. Indonesia, the region's best performer with a 44% rise this year, fell 0.9% to its lowest close since Dec 1.

Jakarta suffered foreign outflows of $121 million on the day, the highest since Oct. 19, Reuters data showed.

Bank Internasional Indonesia fell 6.7%, while top lender Bank Mandiri lost 1.5%. Some regional analysts said the year-end foreign selling in Indonesia was also due to its high valuations.

At Bursa Malaysia, GENTING BHD []'s 30 sen decline to RM10.76 dragged the 30-stock index down by 2.64 points while MISC lost 14 sen to RM8.25 and Tenaga six sen lower at RM8.39.

Among plantations, PPB fell the most, down 18 sen to RM17.06, Batu KAwang 16 sen to RM17, Chin Tek and KL Kepong 14 sen each to RN21.36 and SOP 11 sen to RM3.89 while Glenealy shed 10 sen to RM5.30.

However, it was not all gloomy with trading interest seen in penny and small cap stocks. KNM surged 35 sen to RM2.68 and KNM-CE 5.5 sen to 20 sen after OSK Research upgraded the company. Kencana's strong financial performance saw it notching three sen to RM2.22.


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