Malaysian Shares Extend Wining Streak

Published: 2009/04/18
Share prices on Bursa Malaysia ended the week higher, extending its winning streak to seven trading days, bolstered by improved investor sentiment globally and locally, dealers said.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) ended yesterday 3.89 points higher or 0.405 per cent at 965.17.

"With risk appetite returning, retail players and day traders are coming back into the market with some force as evidenced by the steep rise in volume traded," a dealer said.Analysts said the near-term outlook of the key index remains firmly bullish. "It is very likely that the current rising momentum would lead the market to at least the 200-day moving average line (967)," OSK's technical analyst Shin Kao Jack said.

Dealers said buying interest was mostly in key heavyweights like Tenaga and Bumiputra-Commerce.However, some investors sold off their holdings as they were reluctant to take a heavy position ahead of the weekend.

The KLCI, which opened 2.64 points higher at 963.92, moved between 960.39 and 967.10 in trading.Meanwhile, the Finance Index advanced 57.75 points to 7,423.18, the Industrial Index added 4.8 points to 2,229.71 while the Plantation Index eased 10.09 points to 4,914.32.

The FBMEmas rose 28.23 points to 6,362.57, the FBM30 improved 35.75 points to 6,174.60, the FBM2BRD was 15.01 points lower at 4,093.94 while the FBM-MDQ declined 50.18 points to 3,337.49.Losers led gainers by 356 to 243 while 219 counters were unchanged, 426 untraded and 36 suspended.

Total volume declined to 1.012 billion shares valued at RM1.089 billion from Thursday's close of 1.963 billion shares worth RM1.463 billion.Among the active stocks, KNM was unchanged at 53 sen, Axiata Group-OR added three sen to 59 sen and UEM Land Holdings rose two sen to 99 sen.

Top gainers Tahps Group rose 44 sen to RM3.34, Bintulu Port Holdings rose 35 sen to RM6.30 and Malaysia Smelting Corp went up 27 sen to RM2.79.For heavyweights, Sime Darby was up five sen to RM6.40, Maybank edged up two sen to RM4.40, Tenaga gained 20 sen to RM7.10 and Bumiputra-Commerce rose 15 sen to RM8.00.

The KLCI futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed slightly higher yesterday on improved investor sentiment ahead of the weekend, dealers said.The April 2009 contract added 5.5 points to close at 957.5, May 2009 increased 7.5 points to 956.5 while June 2009 and September 2009 went up seven points each to 951.0 and 938.0 respectively.

Turnover dropped to 8,083 lots from 12,729 lots on Thursday while open interests declined to 20,601 contracts from 20,774 contracts previously. - Bernama, AFP