Wednesday, August 24, 2011

FBM KLCI rises at mid-day, broader market remains cautious

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI edged up at the mid-day break on Wednesday, Aug 24 but the broader market remained cautious in line with the overall sentiment at key regional markets.

Investors also appeared to await for more clarity on the direction of the economy in general and corporate earnings in particular as companies reported their financial results.

Asian markets mostly reversed their gains from earlier in the morning after Moody's Investors Service cut its rating on Japan's government debt by one notch to Aa3 on Wednesday.

The FBM KLCI rose 3.80 points to 1,486.17 at the mid-day break. The broader market, however, remained tepid with 316 losers, 243 gainers and 264 counters trading unchanged.

Volume was 391.25 million shares valued at RM714.08 million.

The ringgit weakened 0.06% to 2.9694 versus the US dollar; crude palm oil futures for the third month delivery slipped RM13 per tonne to RM3,055, crude oil added 16 cents per barrel to US$85.60 while gold jumped US$20.02 to US$1,848.38.

At the regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 edged up 0.03% to 8,735.33 and the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.17% to 2,558.32.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.81% to 19,714.52, South Korea's Kospi down 0.63% to 1,765.43, Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 0.49% to 2,751.51 and Taiwan's Taiex shed 0.15% to 7,538.66.

On Bursa Malaysia, Sunway warrants surged 30 sen to 61 sen with 16.7 million units done, extending its gains from Tuesday.

DiGi and BAT added 24 sen each to RM30.16 and RM45.18, Panasonic 20 sen to RM23.20, Pintaras 14 sen to RM2.34, Uzma 13 sen to RM1.91, Apollo and MFCB 11 sen each to RM2.96 and RM1.66, while Batu Kawan added 10 sen to RM15.80.

Axiata was the most actively traded counter with 24.4 million shares done. The stock shed three sen to RM4.59.

Other actives included AirAsia, MUI, CIMB, Tanco, Timecom, Petronas Chemicals and DVM.

SHL was the top loser this morning and fell 15 sen to RM1/35; YTL Cement lost 14 sen to RM4.85, MAHP and Lafarge Malayan Cement 10 sen each to RM6.40 and RM7.10, Malayan Flour Flour Mills eight sen to RM7.40, Utusan 7.5 sen to 75 sen, while JobStreet, Daibochi and AirAsia lost seven sen each to RM2.80, RM2.60 and RM3.55.

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