Monday, March 14, 2011

FBM KLCI rebounds, Asian stocks in the red

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI rebounded at the mid-day break on Monday, March 14 as key regional markets remained in the red after Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled more than 6% on its first trading day after the country was hit a by devastating earthquake last Friday.

Japanese stocks fell 7.6%, on track for the biggest daily loss since October 2008, and bond yields rose on Monday as investors expected the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country's northeast to take an economic toll and require heavy government borrowing.

The drop in Tokyo-listed shares was compounded by fears about the longer term impact on power supplies after the earthquake damaged a nuclear generator and authorities worked desperately to avert a plant meltdown after an explosion on Monday.

The FBM KLCI reversed its losses from the morning and was up 0.02% or 0.37 point to 1,495.99 at 12.30pm, lifted by gains including at Petronas Chemicals, Genting, Sime Darby and MISC.

The index had earlier fallen to its intra-morning low of 1,480.53.

Gainers trailed losers by 226 to 343, while 235 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 405.6 million shares valued at RM460.82 million.

The ringgit weakened 0.04% to 3.0405 versus the US dollar; crude palm oil futures for the third month delivery fell RM80 per tonne to RM3.265, crude oil fell US$1.46 per barrel to US$99.70 while gold was up US$5.33 per troy ounce to US$1,422.78.

At the regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 6.25% to 9,613.13, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 0.51% to 23,132.10, Taiwan's Taiex fell 1.24% to 8,461.32, South Korea's Kospi down 0.70% to 1,941.89, Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 0.58% to 3,025.93 and the Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.02% to 2,933.31.

On Bursa Malaysia, Petronas Chemicals rose 14 sen to RM6.70, Genting 10 sen to RM10.10, Sime Darby and MISC three sen each to RM9.06 and RM7.53, PPB 10 sen to RM16.82, YTL Corp eight sen to RM7.21 and Petronas Gas six sen to RM11.58.

Berjaya Retail Bhd shares were actively trade after Pemier Merchandise Sdn Bhd (PMSB), which controls 58.71% of the company issued notice to take it private at 65 sen per share.

The stock added 21 sen to 63.5 sen with 27.62 million shares done.

Meanwhile, timber-related stocks also advanced on expectation of an increase of demand for timber products following the earthquake in Japan.

Jaya Tiasa was up 16 sen to RM5.01, Ta Ann added 12 sen to RM4.88 while WTK was up eight sen to RM1.34.

Other gainers included Maybank, HPI and Top Glove.

Decliners this morning included Shell, F&N, AIC, Toyo Ink, Genting PLANTATION []s, KLK, BAT, Aeon and Panasonic.

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