Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Market displays resilience to end marginally lower

KUALA LUMPUR: Stocks on Bursa Malaysia displayed some resilience on Tuesday, Jan 11, with some buying in afternoon trade of oil and gas companies enabling the FBM KLCI to close off the day's low.

Losses in banks and PLANTATION [] stocks weighed on the FBM KLCI as investors took profit after the five straight days of gains last week. Tuesday was the second day of losses, though the FBM KLCI closed a marginal 0.04% or 0.58 of a point lower at 1,562.94, off the early low of 1,558.64.

The broader market was mixed with losers edging gainers 426 to 437, while 282 counters traded unchanged. Volume was still robust with 2.71 billion shares valued at RM2.64 billion.

Shares in China and Hong Kong rose on Tuesday as North Asian markets outperformed the region, with optimism over strong economic growth and corporate earnings offsetting investors' concern over Europe's festering debt crisis, according to Reuters.

Energy shares also supported markets as oil prices continued to recover from a drop of more than 3% dip last week, it said.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.99% to 23,760.34, the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.44% to 2,804.05, Taiwan's Taiex jumped 1.29% to 8,931.36, Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 0.38% to 3,241.49 and South Korea's Kospi was up 0.36% to 2,088.32. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.29% to 10,510.68.

At Bursa Malaysia, Hap Seng Consolidated fell 49 sen to RM6.80 after announcing plans to raise nearly RM1.5 billion from a sharea placement and right issue.

Among plantations, BLD Plantations lost 24 sen to RM5.20, Far East Corp and PPB 20 sen each to RM7.10 and RM17.34, United Malacca 13 sen to RM7.10 while KLK fell four sen to RM22.36.

Maybank and CIMB lost six sen each to RM8.94 and RM8.77, while AMMB fell three sen to RM6.97.

PLUS lost 24 sen to RM4.45 as research houses reduced their target price. Only UEM and EPF had put down the RM50 million cash deposit for their joint'' RM23 billion takeover offer or RM4.60 per share for the highway operator.

Oil and gas-related counters advanced after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced RM20 billion of projects in the sector. SapuraCrest jumped 18 sen to RM3.45, Kencana up six sen to RM2.73, Wah Seong Corp gained two sen to RM2.30, Perisai added 3.5 sen to 64 sen while SAAG edged up half a sen to 14 sen.

SAAG was also the most actively traded counter with 395.1 million shares done.

Other actives included Talam, Karambunai, Compugates, Ramunia, Dialog and Tradewinds Corp.

Asia Media, which made its debut on the ACE Market closed 5.5 sen higher at 28.5 sen with 40.9 million shared traded.

Gainers included Hock Sin Leong, GAB, BAT, Tradewinds, Bursa Malaysia and Genting.


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