Thursday, April 7, 2011

Local fund buying lifts KLCI to highest since Jan 19

KUALA LUMPUR: Local fund buying of key stocks helped nudge the FBM KLCI to close at 1,561 on Thursday, April 7, the highest since Jan 17 with gains seen in banks and PLANTATION [] stocks.

At 5pm, the KLCI was up 9.04 points or 0.58% to 1,561.93. Turnover was 1.57 billion shares valued at RM2.28 billion. Advancers led decliners 441 to 352 while 323 stocks were unchanged.

The KLCI is just 13 points away from the all-time closing high of 1,574 on Jan 17, which was then driven by foreign buying.

The head of institutional dealing at a local bank-backed brokerage said most of the buying was by local funds. He expected the market to extend its gains at least until the Sarawak elections.

Among the regional markets,'' Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.07% to 9,590.93, Shanghai's Composite Index 0.22% higher at 3,007.91, Taiwan's Taiex Index 0.56% to 8,901.72 but Singapore's Straits Times Index shed 0.03% to 3,169.46.

At Bursa, investors chose to ignore negative news including those from IOI Corp and MAA. IOI Corp rose 17 sen to RM5.72, pushing up the index by 2.67 points.

IOI Corp recouped all its losses from Wednesday when it fell on concerns about the impact of the suspension of its current and ongoing certification process.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Malaysia-based IOI Corporation's long-term foreign currency issuer default rating (IDR) at 'BBB+'. It said the outlook was stable. The senior unsecured rating on its USD500m notes due 2015, guaranteed by IOI Corp, has also been affirmed at 'BBB+'.

Among the banks, Hong Leong Bank rose 30 sen to RM10.40, HLFG 26 sen to RM9.37, AMMB 15 sen to RM6.66 while Maybank rose five sen to RM9.20 and CIMB four sen to RM8.32.

Among the top gainers were Nestle, up 90 sen to RM48.50, DiGi 54 sen to RM29.34, BHIC 37 sen to RM4.57 and Carlsberg 24 sen to RM7.83.

Goldis surged 29 sen to RM1.86 after it announced the proposed sale of its entire 78.15% stake in Hoepharma Holdings Sdn Bhd for RM289 million.

MAA rose 18 sen to RM1.38 with 64.81 million shares despite the company's denial of a news report that it was selling a 70% stake in its insurance unit for RM1.2 billion.

Profit taking saw MMHE sliding 15 sen to RM6.96, while Asas shed 12 sen to 88 sen and Subur Tiasa also 12 sen to RM3.62.

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