Friday, May 6, 2011

No respite for KLCI as investors avoid equities

KUALA LUMPUR: The local stock market continued to lose ground, falling for the fifth trading day on Friday, May 6 mirroring the cautious mood of investors in key regional markets also.

It closed down 5.68 points to 1,515.50 ' down 19.8 points or 1.28% from 1,535.30 on April 28. Turnover declined to 855.73 million shares valued at RM1.42 billion. There were 257 gainers, 448 losers and 308 stocks unchanged.

Reuters reported China's main stock index ended down 0.3% on Friday at a more than two-month low, weighed down by energy shares as investors cut positions after a sharp sell-off in commodities.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell to 2,863.9, following a 0.2% rise on Thursday. The index is down 1.6% for the week.

At Bursa Malaysia, United PLANTATION []s fell the most, down 36 sen to RM17.64, MISC shed 17 sen to RM7.23 while down 16 sen each were PPB, Sime and Petronas Chemicals to RM16.72, RM8.81 and RM6.92 respectively. DiGi lost 16 sen also to RM29.04.

Boilermech lost 13.5 sen to 68.5 sen. It made its debut on Thursday.

F&N rose the most, gaining 30 sen to RM18.70 after its strong set of earnings and dividend while BAT added 22 sen to RM47.60 and Tenaga 13 sen to RM6.12. Favelle Favco added eight sen to RM1.30.

On the commodities front, oil prices fell 5% on Friday, after a 10% crash on Thursday, as fears about global economic recovery pushed investors to further unwind commodities positions.

Reuters reported Brent crude shed just over US$5, recovering to trade at US$107.16, US$3.64 down, at 4.48am in New York.

Brent settled more than US$10 lower on Thursday at US$110.80 a barrel, the second biggest drop on record. At one point it gave up US$12, its biggest fall ever.

U.S. crude futures were US$3.62 lower at US$96.20 a barrel, up from as low as US$95.25 a barrel earlier in the session.

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