Friday, June 24, 2011

Asian markets advance on Greece austerity plan

KUALA LUMPUR: Key regional markets advanced at mid-day on Friday, June 24 on bargain hunting as buyers lapped stocks that had been battered in recent days, following improved investor sentiment on news that Greece had agreed to a five-year austerity plan.

Analysts however cautioned that trading at the local bourse could remain volatile.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was up 0.18 point to 1,563.37. Gainers edged losers by 280 to 277, while 302 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 525.96 million shares valued at RM728.16 million.

The ringgit weakened 0.14% to 3.0363 versus the US dollar; crude palm oil futures for the third month delivery fell RM3 per tonne to RM3,133, crude oil rose US$1.15 per barrel to US$92.17 while gold gained US$1.90 an ounce to US$1,523.30.

At the regional markets, the Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1.55% to 27,29.91, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.42% to 22,068.67, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.65% to 9,658.99, South Korea's Kospi gained 1.21% to 2,080.81 and Singapore's Straits Times Index edged up 0.28% to 3,053.32.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Taiex shed 0.60% to 8,515.95.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd head of retail research Lee Cheng Hooi said that due the US markets' softer tone last night there could be some initial selling activities on the local bourse.

'The market could decline marginally, with some blue chip buying activities cushioning the drop later in the day. As a result, we expect the FBM KLCI to remain volatile on an intraday basis today.'' There is a possibility it will test its resistances of 1,569 and 1,576, though the rise will be of a rough and rocky nature,' he said.

Among the gainers this morning, Malayan Flour Mills added 18 sen to RM7.49, Ibraco up 17 sen to RM1.15, Batu Kawan 16 sen to RM16.96, Aeon 12 sen to RM7.27, BIMB 11 sen to RM1.96, Milux and MAS up nine sen each to RM1.27 and RM1.54, while BHIC added eight sen to RM4.05.

Hong Leong Bank was the top loser this morning and fell 28 sen to RM12.62, Panasonic and RHB Capital were down 26 sen each to RM24.70 and RM8.77, HLFG 24 sen to RM13.08, Tasek, Inno, BAT and MPI fell 10 sen each to RM7.80, RM1.40, RM45.90 and RM4.50 respectively, while Aeon Credit and Texchem lost eight sen each to RM4.82 and 65 sen.

Among the actively traded counters, Ingenuity Solutions added half a sen to 8 sen, HWGB was up 3.5 sen to 41.5 sen, SAAG unchanged at 7 sen, Kurnia Asia gained 1.5 sen to 50 sen, Silver Bird down three sen to 55 sen and Perisai added 2.5 sen to 82.5 sen.

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