Monday, October 24, 2011

KLCI off day's best as investors lock in gains

KUALA LUMPUR: Blue chips closed off their day's best on Monday, Oct 24 as investors decided to lock in some of the gains as they awaited firmer news from the euro debt resolution at Wednesday's summit.

At 5pm, the KLCI was up 11.19 points or 0.78% to 1,450.02, but off the day's best of 1,462.06. Turnover was 1.24 billion shares valued at RM1.31 billion. Advancing counters beat decliners nearly three to one, with 556 gainers to 203 losers and 254 stocks were unchanged.

Among key regional markets, Reuters reported that the Hang Seng Index closed up 4.14% at 18,771.82. The China Enterprises Index of the top mainland companies listed in Hong Kong climbed 5.4% to finish at 9,717.65. The Shanghai Composite Index closed up 2.29% at 2,370.33

Hong Kong shares recorded their best daily performance in two weeks on Monday, led by mainland energy and materials plays that suffered the brunt of recent bearishness on China, but gains came in low turnover, suggesting a lack of conviction.

Japan's Nikkei 225 added 1.9% to 8,843.98, South Korea's Kospi 3.26% to 1,898.32 and Singapore's Straits Times Index 1.79% to 2,760.95.

At Bursa Malaysia, investors, which had been hammered by the volatile market sentiment, decided to be prudent and take profit after the sharp gains.

Lower priced shares and penny stocks attracted attention, pushing the turnover to new levels in recent weeks. Investors would want to await for solid confirmation of measures to resolve the euro debt crisis before putting in more money into equities.

Consumer stocks were among the top gainers, with BAT chalking up gains of 54 sen to RM44.98, Dutch Lady 34 sen to RM19.34, GAB 20 sen to RM10.64.

Genting rose 27 sen to RM10.02 with 2.98 million shares done while Genting Malaysia eight sen to RM3.75. The other top gainers were PacificMas, up 21 sen to RM3.58, LPI 20 sen to RM12.70 while among PLANTATION []s ChinTek added 17 sen to Rm8.21 and Batu Kawan 16 sen to RM15.50.

Surprisingly on the top losers' list was HL Bank, down 22 sen to RM10.36 but HLFG gained 12 sen to RM11.40.

No comments:

Post a Comment