BURSA MALAYSIA: Share Prices End Firmer On Buying Of Selected Heavyweights

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the day firmer with buying in selected heavyweights such as Sime Darby and Tenaga Nasional, dealers said. However, the gains were limited by losses in other counters such as Maybank, they said.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) ended 1.47 points higher or 0.126 per cent better at 1,172.56, after opening unchanged at 1,171.09 in the morning.
MIMB Investment analyst, Rosnani Rasul said the market was expected to remain rangebound this week in the absence of fresh leads.

"It will be like this at least until the results season is over," she said.

She added that the catalysts in the U.S. which spurred the market were not strong enough to boost the local market. Jupiter Securities head of research, Pong Teng Siew said the market was down not only due to Maybank's lower financial results announced here Tuesday, but also the volatile Chinese market which it tracks.

"Investors know that if the Chinese market swings into the negative, it will take down the regional markets as well. So now, nobody is buying aggressively," he said.

At 5pm, the Finance Index was up 9.631 points at 9,495.98 while the Plantation Index declined 10.2 points to 5,826.53 and the Industrial Index increased 8.18 points to 2,583.72.
The FBM Emas Index gained 15.73 points to 7,920.2, the FBM Top 100 went up 14.44 points to 7,698.78 and the FBM ACE Index rose 2.43 points to end at 4,172.57.

Losers led gainers 363 to 259 while 241 counters closed unchanged, 382 untraded and none suspended.
Turnover however, fell to 636.267 million shares worth RM930.776 million from 709.248 million shares worth RM985.757 million yesterday.

Of the volume leaders, Oilcorp gained three sen to 41.5 sen and Kurasia went up 4.5 sen to 57.5 sen. KNM and Plus each rose one sen to 77 sen and RM3.38 respectively while Yunkong-WA inched up 1.5 sen to 17.5 sen.

The top gainers included Nestle which rose 56 sen to RM34.00, LaFarge Cement which went up 34 sen to RM6.50 and Tomei which advanced 30 sen to 80 sen.
The top losers included DiGi which fell 26 sen to RM21.72, Huatlai which dropped 23.5 sen to 51.5 sen and Petra which lost 19 sen to RM2.49.

Among the heavyweights, Sime Darby rose one sen to RM8.23 while Maybank lost five sen at RM6.47 and Bumiputera-Commerce was flat at RM10.36. Tenaga Nasional gained nine sen to RM8.10 and Genting went up seven sen to RM6.54.

Volume on the Main Market was lower at 576.092 million shares worth RM919.768 million compared to Monday's 650.807 million shares worth RM973.945 million.
The ACE market volume, however, increased to 40.049 million shares valued at RM6.879 million from 29.934 million shares valued at RM5.924 million previously.
Warrants dipped to 18.054 million uits worth RM3.191 million from 25.842 million units worth RM4.843 million yesterday.

Consumer products accounted for 47.493 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 123.204 million, construction 25.721 million, trade/services 200.227 million, technology 26.982 million, infrastructure 11.711 million, finance 65.881 million, hotels 1.532 million, properties 58.884 million, plantations 12.978 million, mining 4,000, REITs 1.453 million, and closed/fund 17,600.