Wednesday, January 26, 2011

KLCI 6-day losses, longest since July last year

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI extended its losing streak for six days on Wednesday, Jan 26, the longest negative run since July 5 last year as tepid investor sentiment kept investors on the sidelines ahead of the holiday-shortened trading next week.

At the close, the 30-stock index fell 0.42% or 6.43 points to 1,520.00, weighed by losses including at the Petronas subsidiaries, index-linked PLANTATION [] stocks and select blue chips.

The index had earlier fallen to its intra-day low of 1,505.36 in the morning session.

Gainers trailed losers by 328 to 418, while 311 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.42 billion shares valued at RM2.6 billion.

MIDF Research head Zulkifli Hamzah said the market was supported by local investors as reflected by the intraday swing in the FBM KLCI.

'The pattern of order flow strongly indicates aggressive selling by foreign investors, which came as no surprise given weak sentiment towards emerging Asian markets.

'It will take some time before the market stages a sustainable rebound. We expect the index to consolidate at current level with 1,500 providing a strong support,' he said.

On Bursa Malaysia, among the Petronas group of companies, Petronas Gas fell 18 sen to RM11.20, Petronas Chemicals down eight sen to RM5.96 and Petronas Dagangan lost four sen to RM12.04.

Plantation stocks also declined, with KLK losing 50 sen to RM20.90, Batu Kawan 28 sen to RM16.30, Sime Darby 10 sen to RM9.20 and Kulim four sen to RM12.84.

Meanwhile, GAB fell 37 sen to RM9.58, DiGi 36 sen to RM25.10, Dutch Lady 18 sen to RM16.92. DFZ Capital 14 sen to RM3.15, LPI Capital 12 sen to RM13.62, Tenaga seven sen to RM6.38, Telekom two sen to RM3.68 and Maxis one sen to RM5.31.

Gainers included BAT, Nestle, Sarawak Cables, Perak Corp, Melati Ehsan and Kumpulan Europlus.

SAAG was the most actively traded counter with 59.4 million shares done. The stock added half a sen to 12.5 sen. Other actives included Compugates, Ho Wah Genting, Ramunia. Karambunai,. Olympia, KUB and Kencana.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong shares rose for the first time in five days on Wednesday, though losses in banking heayweight HSBC and flagging turnover suggested investor confidence remained frail, according to Reuters.

The Hang Seng ended up 0.2%, with HSBC the biggest drag on the benchmark index after an unexpected contraction in the UK economy hit shares of Europe's largest lender. HSBC's Hong Kong-listed shares fell 1%.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.2%, but turnover shrunk to its lowest in four months as investors continued to worry that Beijing will unleash more policy tightening measures this year to cool inflation.

The Shanghai index has lost 4.2% this year, making it North Asia's worst performing equity market.

At the close today, the Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1.17% to 2,708.81, South Korea's Kospi rose 1.14% to 2,110.46, Singapore's Straits Times Index up 1.25% to 3,220.78, Taiwan's Taiex up 0.71% to 9,055.59 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.23% to 23,843.24.

Japan's Nikkei 225, however, fell 0.60% to 10,401.90.


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