KL mart up on positive regional sentiment

Published: 2009/05/30

Malaysian shares ended the week higher, supported by positive regional sentiments, with stocks like Sime Darby and Tenaga Nasional leading the gainers list, said an analyst.

At the close, the benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) added 2.87 points to 1,044.11, after opening 5.56 points higher at 1,046.8.Among others, the traders took cue of gains on Wall Street's futures market, Jupiter Securities Head of Research, Pong Teng Siew said.

"News of Japan's industrial production rising 5.2 per cent in April and India's economy expanding at a faster-than-expected pace of 5.8 per cent in the quarter ended March 31, has helped to stabilise sentiment in the region," he added.According to Pong, a broad range of stocks benefited from the market yesterday.

The Plantation Index jumped 36.32 points to 5,295.77 and the Industrial Index perked 34.64 points to 2,322.10 but the Finance Index shed 89.17 points to 8,004.49 while the FBMEmas Index increased by 30.34 points to 6,984.21.The FBM30 Index climbed 28.9 points to 6,677.27, the FBMMesdaq Index shed 12.02 points to 4,039.69 and the FBM2BRD Index added 27.51 points to 4,574.77.

Advancers led decliners by 386 to 253 counters, while 216 counters were unchanged, 383 untraded and 35 others suspended.Volume rose to 1.769 billion shares worth RM2.362 billion from Wednesday's 1.076 billion shares worth RM1.029 billion.Among the top gainers, Tenaga Nasional rose 55 sen to RM8.15, Sime Darby added 45 sen to RM7.20 and Parkson jumped 40 sen to RM5.20.

Volume leader KNM edged up nine sen to 89.5 sen, Compugates slipped half a sen to nine sen, SAAG perked half a sen to 33 sen, Tebrau added 2.5 sen to 77 sen and Scomi inched up 1.5 sen to 69 sen. Of the heavyweights, Maybank slid 10 sen to RM5.05 sen, Bumiputra-Commerce fell 15 sen, IOI Corp shed eight sen to RM4.52, while MISC, Public Bank and Genting all ended flat at RM8.40, RM8.60 and RM5.45 respectively.

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed higher, in line with the firmer cash market, dealers said.At the close, the spot month May 2009 rose 16 points to 1,055.0, June 2009 increased 19 points to 1,056.5, September 2009 added 19 points to 1,046.5 and December 2009 advanced 18 points to 1,039.5.The day's volume increased to 18,177 lots from 11,458 lots on Thursday but open interests declined to 24,274 contracts from 28,045 contracts previously. - Bernama