Thursday, March 3, 2011

FBM KLCI rises above 1,500-point level at mid-morning

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI rebounded in early trade on Thursday, March 3, in line with key regional markets following the slightly firmer overnight close at Wall Street, as upbeat US economic data helped offset worries about surging oil prices. However, trading at the Asian markets remained cautious as crude oil prices hovered firmly above the US$100 per barrel mark, as the escalating tension in the Mid-east and African region threatens global supplies.

At mid-morning, the FBM KLCI was up 2.18 points to 1,501.46, lifted by gains including at banking stocks and select blue chips.

At the regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.53% to 10,548.09, the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.32% to 2,923.22, Taiwan's Taiex added 0.89% to 8,696.61, South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.54% to 1,958.01, Singapore's Straits Times Index up 0.68% to 3,048.16 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 0.4% higher at 23,142.02.

BIMB Securities Research said Wall Street closed marginally higher driven by encouraging new hiring in US and positive economic growth in the country.

The US Federal Reserve, in the meantime, said that 12 regions in US showed economic expansion in the last 2 months and there was an encouraging signs that retail spending in US is gaining traction, it said.

'Despite all this, we are continually concerned over the pace of crude oil price movement since the eruption of the civil unrest in Middle East and North Africa. Crude oil already surpassed US$100 per barrel yesterday and there is no sign of any weakness so far.

'Given that, we expect the local and regional equity market will continue to be under pressure and expect some selling pressure to persist for this week,' it said.

Among the gainers on Bursa Malaysia, RHB Capital was up 11 sen to RM8, Hong Leong Bank 10 sen to RM9.40, AMMB four sen to 6.25 and Maybank three sen to RM8.71.

Sime Darby rose three sen to RM9.03, MISC seven sen to RM7.67, DiGi 26 sen to RM27.12, Petronas Dagangan 14 sen to RM14.06, while SOP, Tasek, LPI Capital and KLK rose 12 sen each to RM3.60, RM8.50, RM13.80 and RM20.38 respectively.

Decliners at mid-morning included BAT, Fima Corp, C.I Holdings, Pintaras and Glenealy.

Tanco was the most actively traded stock with 17.5 million shares done. It rose 2.5 sen to 35.5 sen. Other actives included SAAG, HWGB, DRB-Hicom and ASB.

No comments:

Post a Comment