KL Market Down On Profit-Taking

Published: 2009/04/28

Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed lower yesterday as investors took profits from the recent run-up, dealers said.

The benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) fell 1.27 per cent, or 12.56 points, to close at 980.12.

Dealers said profit-taking in the major plantation and financial stocks dragged the key index into negative territory. They said news of the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico also dampened sentiment on the local as well as regional markets.

However, they said the announcement of the liberalisation measures for the country's financial sector provided support to the market.

"The initial uptick in early trade was driven by gains in finance stocks ahead of the liberalisation plan but weakness in regional markets, triggered by fears over the spread of this new outbreak, caused the pullback," a dealer told Dow Jones Newswires.

But another dealer said buying interest remained firm in the local bourse. "Depending on how this outbreak is dealt with, there may be some weakness in the near term but the upward bias seems to be intact," the dealer said.

The Finance Index fell 81.01 points to 7,528.95, the Plantation Index declined 54.12 points to 4,992.77 and the Industrial Index dropped 15.79 points to 2,242.06.

Of the FTSE-BM series, the FBMEmas declined 100.59 points to 6,470.59, the FBM30 went down 87.21 points to 6,276.11, the FBM2BRD shed 0.66 point to 4,309.56 and the FBM-MDQ dropped 146.77 points to 3,470.38.

Losers led gainers by 510 to 184 while 169 counters were unchanged, 379 untraded and 36 others suspended. Volume rose to 2.109 billion shares valued at RM1.418 billion compared with 2.082 billion shares worth RM1.667 billion last Friday.

Topping the actives list, Talam rose 1.5 sen to 8.5 sen, Ramunia advanced 11.5 sen to 65 sen and Time dotCom added 1 sen to 33.5 sen. KNM Group shed 2.5 sen to 55 sen and SAAG Consolidated lost 2 sen to 26 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Sime Darby, Tenaga and Bumiputra-Commerce all declined 15 sen each to RM6.50, RM7.10 and RM8 respectively.

Maybank shed 4 sen to RM4.46, IOI Corp lost 8 sen to RM4.32 while MISC rose 5 sen to RM8.50.

On Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, KLCI futures closed lower in line with the easier cash market, dealers said.

Spot month April 2009 fell 15 points to 982, May 2009 dropped 21 points to 975 and June 2009 declined 18 points to 976.

Volume was higher at 24,137 lots from 10,563 lots last Friday and open interests rose to 25,475 contracts from 24,579 contracts previously. - Bernama, AFP