Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Asian markets stay in the black but pare down some gains

Larger Smaller Reset KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21): Asian markets stayed in the black on Wednesday on upbeat mood as China and Taiwan upped the ante to support their respective stock markets, while encouraging US and German data and strong demand for Spanish debt tempered risk-aversion.

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However, some of the indices pared down their gains as Japan exports fell at their fastest annual pace in six months in November as a strong yen, the Eurozone debt crisis and a slowdown in emerging economies weighed on overseas demand.

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The FBM KLCI was up 16.14 points to 1,481.31 at the mid-day break, lifted by gains including at Genting and banking stocks.

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Gainers led losers by 361 to 226, while 308 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 824.31 million shares valued at RM535.75 million.

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The ringgit strengthened 0.40% to 3.1684 versus the US dollar; crude palm oil futures for the third month delivery rose RM18 per tonne to RM3,038, crude oil added 50 cents to US$97.74 and gold gained US$8.22 an ounce to US$1,624.13.

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At the regional markets, Japan's Nikkei was up 1.28% to 8,443.56, Hong Kong's Hong Seng Index added 1.6% to 18,368.66, the Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.24% to 2,221.14, Taiwan's Taiex jumped 4.23% to 6,944.65, South Korea's Kospi gained 3.10% to 1,848.56 and Singapore's Straits Times Index was up 1.52% to 2,654.17.

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On Bursa Malaysia, PPB and Genting rose 28 sen each to RM16.98 and RM10.64, BAT up 24 sen to RM48.24, KAF 23 sen to RM1.71, HLFG 20 sen to RM11.62, Public Bank 16 sen to RM13.16, Fima Corp and AMMB 15 sen each to RM5.90 and RM5.85, while F&N was up 14 sen to RM18.08.

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Among the decliners, Batu Kawan fell 20 sen to RM17, JT International 14 sen to RM6.86, MPI 11 sen to RM2.62, Nestle 10 sen to RM56.20, Uzma and IGB nine sen each to RM1.61 and RM2.33, Ho Hup 6.5 sen to 62.5 sen and Vastalux 6.5 sen to 2 sen.

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The actives included Utopia, TMS, Maxbiz, JCY, Vastalux, Focus and Nova MSC.

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