Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Blue chips shrug off early losses

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI continued its ascend on Wednesday, Jan 5 after a choppy first hour of trade when it slipped into the red'' in line with the general decline at regional markets and slightly weaker overnight close at Wall Street.

At 10am, the 30-stock index was up 1.42 points to 1,553.31. Losers edged gainers by 261 to 255, while 254 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 495.04 million shares valued at RM464.24 million.

At the regional markets, some profit taking began to emerge despite encouraging economic data from the US.

Asian stocks slid on Wednesday following a broad commodities sell-off but the U.S. dollar edged higher after stronger-than expected US factory data offered further evidence of an economic recovery, according to Reuters.

Oil fell for a second day as investors took profits from a sharp year-end rally. Gold inched up, though, after sinking more than 2% in the previous session.

The fall in commodities to their lowest level in seven weeks weighed on shares of resource companies in early Asia trade, although market analysts said it was likely to have a limited impact, it said.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.66% to 2,833.80, South Korea's Kospi Index lost 0.285 to 2,079.39, Taiwan's Taiex lost 0.22% to 8,977.38, Japan's Nikkei 225 down 0.12% to 10,385.44, Singapore's Straits Times Index slipped 0.08% to 3,247.71 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 0.2% lower at 23,611.86.

SJ Securities Sdn Bhd in a note Jan 5 said technical readings from the indicators indicated a very bullish condition of the FBM KLCI, but nevertheless, it was a little overbought, and a pull-back was expected soon.

With the strong up move over the last two days, the FBM KLCI had resumed its short term uptrend, and the medium and long term uptrend remained intact, it said.

'The FBM KLCI is now moving into an uncharted territory, and is technically very bullish. Any pull-back shall be viewed as an opportunity to accumulate quality shares at lower level.

'Overnight, the Dow rose 0.18% higher to close at 11,691.18. Today, the FBM KLCI is likely to trade within a range of 1,522 to 1,569,' said the research house.

On Bursa Malaysia, the top gainer at mid-morning was Kulim that rose 36 sen to RM13.12; Maybank 23 sen to RM9.01, United PLANTATION []s 18 sen each to RM17.10, Nestle 16 sen to RM44 while Petronas Chemicals was up five sen to RM5.63.

Ekovest was up 13 sen to RM2.87 and Mudajaya added 11 sen to RM4.44

Decliners included Hartalega, Petronas Dagangan, Genting, DiGi, Hong Leong Bank, PPB, Petronas Gas, YTL Corp and Hap Seng.

Meanwhile, the actives included Petronas Chemicals, Karambunai, Hovid, Talam and Borneo Oil.


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