Thursday, October 20, 2011

Weaker external sentiment weighs on KLCI

KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI remained in negative territory at mid-morning on Thursday, Oct 20 as the opaque global economic outlook continued to keep investors at bay.

Asian stocks fell on Thursday, as growing investor caution about taking risks ahead of a key European leaders' summit at the weekend weighed on riskier assets across the board and supported safe-haven government bonds, according to Reuters.

The FBM KLCI was down 7.36 points to 1,442.89 at 10am.

Losers led gainers by 229 to 164, while 167 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 311.28 million shares valued at RM142.33 million.

At the regional markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.38% to 18,057.44, Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 0.87% to 8,696.65, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.71% to 2,360.52,Taiwan's Taiex lost 0.62% to 7,308.13, Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 0.31% to 2,711.71 and South Korea's Kospi edged down 0.21% to 1,851.98.

BIMB Securities Research in a note Oct 20 said it was a case of news indigestion for many investors as developments in Europe, the economic progress and earnings reporting in the US had overwhelmed the markets.

In the end, investors preferred to pay heed to the reported earnings figures which are deemed not too sanguine by most, it said.

It said that as a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 72 points to close the session a tinge above the 11,500 level.

Meanwhile, the prolonged bailout package for Europe was still being deliberated and further delays would aggravate investors' prevailing uneasiness, it said.

Nonetheless, major European indices all ended on a high with the Asian counterparts closed at a mixed, it said, adding that locally, the FBM KLCI closed just above the support level of 1,450, up 10.31 points.

'However we noticed that institutional participation was rather subdued with bulk of yesterday's volume dominated by the lower liners.

'Today we believe the index may gravitate to the south with the 1,440 as the immediate support,' it said.

On Bursa Malaysia, the top loser at mid-morning was Dutch Lady that fell 34 sen to RM18.30; Malayan Flour Mills fell 21 sen to RM7.43, Petronas Gas 16 sen to RM12.94, MISC 15 sen to RM6.58, Shell 14 sen to RM9.32, PPB 12 sen to RM16.58, IJM Corp 11 sen to RM5.28, Petronas Dagangan 10 sen to RM16.10 and Lafarge Malayan Cement eight sen to RM7.12.

Hard disk drive maker JCY continued to be actively traded with 26.2 million shares done. The stock added 1.5 sen to 59.5 sen.

Other actives included Sinotop, Asia EP, Jotech and Uli-Corp.

Gainers at mid-morning included AIC, BAT, Aeon, CI Holdings, Batu Kawan and IJM PLANTATION []s.

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