Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Blue chips slip, banks weigh

KUALA LUMPUR: Banks and Genting weighed on blue chips in the morning session on Wednesday, Jan 19 as some investors locked in gains ahead of the holidays on Thursday. However, the selling was relatively done in thin volume.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 3.86 points to 1,566.18. Year-to-date, it is up 3.1%. Turnover was 768.8 million shares valued at RM829.61 million. The broader market saw decliners beating advancers 465to 238 while 286 counters were unchanged.

Key regional markets climbed as sentiment perked up following the firm overnight close on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.24% to 10,544.03, Hong Kong's hang Seng Index gained 0.82% to 24,351.86, Shanghai's Composite Index 1.06% to 2,737.66. Taiwan's Taiex added 0.68% to 9,049.19 and the Kospi 0.69% to 2,110.95.

Among the Asean markets, Singapore's Straits Times Index added 0.07% to 3,251.94 but Jakarta's Composite Index fell 0.59% to 3,527.77 and Philippines' SE Index down 0.81% to 4,039.56.

At Bursa Malaysia, despite the declines in index-linked stocks, the profit taking was relatively mild and in thin volume.

Among the banks, CIMB fell nine sen to RM8.69, dragging the index down by 1.58 points, Maybank fell two sen to RM8.94 and AMMB four sen to RM6.91 while Pubic bank shed two sen to RM13.46.

GENTING BHD [] lost 12 sen to RM11.60 but with only 839,200 shares done, but the decline was sufficient to drag the index down by 1.05 points. Bursa shed nine sen to RM8.74.

Among the consumer stocks, Nestle fell 40 sen to RM45.10, GAB and Dutch Lady 10 sen each to RM10.60 and RM17.30.

KSSC, which was listed on Wednesday, rose four sen to 61 sen. There were 29.49 million shares done.

Pos Malaysia was the top gainer after Khazanah Nasional Bhd said it would call bids this week for the sale of its 32.21% stake. OSK Research maintained its Buy recommendation and also upgraded the target price to RM4.45 from RM4.33.

DiGi rose 20 sen to RM25.50 following the latest corporate development involving its collaboration with Celcom.

Among PLANTATION []s, KL Kepong added 14 sen to RM22.90.


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