KL Shares lower as investors take profits; FBM KLCI down 0.5%

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed easier as most investors cashed out their profits after the market barometer hit a 14-month high Tuesday, dealers said. The downtrend was in tandem with mild losses suffered in some major regional bourses despite the overnight gains on Wall Street.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) closed 0.5 per cent or 5.61 points lower at 1,196.46, after hitting a high of 1,204.83 in intra-day trading. The key index opened 1.59 points higher at 1,203.66.

" The key index was unable to sustain its 1,200-points level, last seen in June 2008, as profit taking on large-cap stocks trimmed earlier gains," one dealer said. " However, positive gains recorded in plantation-related stocks, due to high crude palm oil prices, helped limit losses, " he said.

The FBM Emas fell 40.12 points to 8,053.70, the FBM Top 100 gave up 35.54 points to 7,839.29, the FBM70 declined 30.94 points to 7,915.22 and the FBM Ace Index lost 24.18 points to 4,098.37. The Finance Index slipped 26.13 points to 9,666.23 and the Industrial Index narrowed 18.08 points to 2,632.66. The Plantation Index however, was up 35.27 points to 5,960.50.

Losers outpaced gainers 441 to 231 while 212 counters were unchanged and 371 others were untraded. Overall trading was relatively thin with 647.634 million shares worth RM1.069 billion changing hands, down from 790.899 million shares valued at RM1.398 billion recorded on Tuesday.

Leading the actives, KNM Group edged down 1.5 sen to 72.5 sen, MLABS Systems shed two sen to 17.5 sen and N2N Connect slipped one sen to 27 sen. Genting Bhd was down 30 sen to RM6.87 while Green Packet rose one sen to 25.5 sen. Plantation-based IOI Corporation rose eight sen to RM5.34, PPB Group gained 10 sen to RM15.68 and Kuala Lumpur Kepong added six sen to RM13.72.

Top gainer, Kumpulan H&L High-Tech, surged 21 sen to 88 sen while British American Tobacco was the biggest loser, down 56 sen to RM45.00. Among heavyweights, Tanjong declined 36 sen to RM15.54, YTL Corporation was down 16 sen to RM7.24 and Maybank was unchanged at RM6.55.CIMB Group Holdings (formerly known as Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings) also closed flat at RM10.48.

FBM KLCI FUTURES
The FBM KLCI futures contracts ended lower amid the weaker cash market, dealers said. The September KLCI 2009 futures contract fell 5.5 points to 1,200.5 and October 2009 contract dropped six points to 1,199. The December 2009 slipped four points to 1,197 and March 2010 fell 4.5 points to 1,190.5. Volume was lower at 3,841 lots against 6,283 lots on Tuesday while open interest was 15,451 contracts, up from 15,095 contracts.

CPO FUTURES
CRUDE palm oil (CPO) futures prices on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed lower yesterday on lack of strong buying interest, dealers said.
They said players cut their position as they were cautious about the export data for September 1 to 10 which is expected to be released today.

“There is speculation in the market that exports in the first 10 days of September may have fallen from the same period in August,” a dealer said.
Traders were also cautious on another data due out tomorrow regarding Malaysian palm oil production, exports and closing stocks in August.
At close, the CPO futures for September 2009 and October 2009 fell RM26 each to RM2,229 a tonne and RM2,215 a tonne, respectively, November 2009 declined RM31 to RM2,179 per tonne and December 2009 eased RM32 to
RM2,165 per tonne.
Volume, however, increased to 13,711 lots from 12,942 lots while open interests declined to 86,270 contracts from 86,749 contracts previously.
On the physical market, September South declined to RM2,240 per tonne from RM2,270 per tonne previously.