Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Asian markets up on bargain hunting

KUALA LUMPUR: Asian stock markets, including Bursa Malaysia were mostly up at mid-day on Wednesday, March 30 on bargain hunting as investors were drawn back to riskier assets by attractive valuations.

The FBM KLCI rose 0.58% or 8.89 points to 1,528.98 at the mid-day break, lifted by gains including at banking and blue chip stocks. Gainers led losers by 552 to 214, while 262 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 1.50 billion shares valued at RM1.29 billion.

The ringgit weakened 0.03% to 3.0275 versus the US dollar; crude palm oil gained RM36 per tonne to RM3,288, crude oil lost 39 cents per barrel to US$104.40 and gold shed 40 cents per troy ounce to US$1,418.10.

At the regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 1.87% to 9,635.50, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.71% to 23,453.60, Singapore's Straits Times added 1.36% to 3,098.48, South Korea's Kospi was up 0.96% to 2,092.03 and Taiwan's Taiex edged up 0.69% to 8,655.91.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.48% to 2,943.85

Renewed demand for equities came despite concerns the global economy could be hurt by Japan's struggle to contain the world's worst nuclear crisis in decades, conflicts in Libya and the Middle East and Europe's festering sovereign debt problems, according to Reuters.

Investor concerns over those risks have eased, for now, with expectations that stocks worldwide will move higher into the new quarter, analysts and traders said, it said.

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On Bursa Malaysia, Maybank and YTL Corp rose 13 sen each to RM8.91 and RM7.36, Public Bank and Petronas Gas up eight sen each to RM13.10 and RM11.46, Telekom 10 sen to RM4, Tenaga seven sen to RM6.06, Axiata five sen to RM4.81 and CIMB three sen to RM8.14.

DiGi was up 54 sen to RM28.46, JT International 32 sen to RM7.10, Cypark and MBSB 31 sen each to RM3.20 and RM2.35, Warisan 20 sen to RM2.60, IJM 19 sen to RM6.29, Khind and DRB-Hicom 16 sen each to RM1.58 and RM2.32, and Nationwide was up 15.5 sen to 81.5 sen.

SAAG was the most actively traded counter with 95.8 million shares done. The stock added 1.5 sen to 11.5 sen.

Other actives included Perisai, Karambunai, Leweko, Tiger, Olympia and ManagePay Systems.

Decliners included Nestle, Ta Ann. Jaya Tiasa, Lafarge Malayan Cement, Sungei Bagan, Aeon and Lysaght.

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