Friday, November 25, 2011

KLCI slips into the red, blue chips weigh

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 25): The FBM KLCI slipped back into the red on Friday, in line with the retreat at most key regional markets and the weaker overnight close at European markets.

Analysts said the retreat at the local bourse was also partially due to the extended weekend with Monday being a public holiday, and investors preferring to remain on the sidelines for now.

The FBM KLCI fell 11.25 points to 1,436.74, weighed by losses at select blue chips.

Losers led gainers by 242 to 146 while 183 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 390.38 million shares valued at RM149.76 million.

Meanwhile, Asian shares and the euro both hovered near seven-week lows on Friday as European officials failed to soothe investor fears that the euro zone's debt crisis could trigger a credit crunch if funding costs run out of control, according to Reuters.

European shares fell for the sixth consecutive session in low volume on Thursday while Wall Street was shut for the Thanksgiving holiday, it said.

With European policymakers struggling to break out of the deadlock and no convincing progress in sight over the euro zone debt crisis, investors were shunning riskier assets and selling assets normally perceived as safe to raise cash or cover losses, said Reuters.

At the regional markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.99% to ,757.74, the Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.03% to 2,396.81, Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 0.02% to 8,163.38, Singapore's Straits Times Index down 0.42% to 2,665.94, South Korea's Kospi lost 0.91% to 1,778.77 while Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.13% to 6,873.29.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd head of retail research and chief chartist Lee Cheng Hooi in a note to clients on Friday said that due to the European markets' quite tone last night, it could be another benign day for the local index.

Persistent profit taking would take place today as the market squares positions ahead of a long holiday weekend (with Monday being the Awal Muharram holiday).

'Yesterday's rise was quite amazing as it came on the back of global equity adversity in USA and Europe.

'Ultimately, even the Malaysian bourse will fall in-line with the weaker global equity markets. Trade with obvious caution,' he said.

Among the losers at mid-morning, Nestle fell 20 sen to RM50.40, MISC down 18 sen to RM5.95, MNRB 16 sen to RM2.70, MAHB 15 sen to RM6.05, Axiara and Petronas Gas 14 sen each to RM4.82 and RM13.12, Telekom 11 sen to RM4.33, Harvest Court 10 sen to RM1.01, Bonia nine sen to RM1.61 and PPB down eight sen to RM16.18.

HLFG was the top gainer and rose 24 sen to RM11.56; Hong Leong Bank added 20 sen to RM10.40, TDM 17 sen to RM3.46, Knusford 16 sen to RM1.95, TSH 10 sen to RM3.95, Proton nine sen to RM3.27, Batu Kawan eight sen to RM16.60, Brem sen to RM1.33 while Kwantas added six sen to RM2.08.

Meanwhile, the actives included MUI Industries, Compugates, Emico, Sumatec, Tiger Synergy and JCY.

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