KL shares up 0.7pc on buying interest

Published: 2009/08/04

MALAYSIAN shares closed up 0.73 per cent today led by buying interest in plantation and finance stocks following gains on Wall Street, dealers said.Investor interests were seen in property, plantation and consumer related counters.

At the close, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index rose 8.57 points to 1179.88 after opening 3.41 points higher at 1174.72."Better-than-expected earnings and lack of negative headlines fuelled strong gains on Wall Street, supported by broad-based buying and short covering," said MIMB Investment Bank in its research note.

Both US indices closed higher with the Dow Jones Industrial Index and Standard & Poor's 500 Index increasing 1.25 per cent and 1.53 per cent to close at 9,286.56 and 1,002.63 respectively. OSK Investment Research said it was maintaining its bullish view towards the local bourse's near-term market.

From the current level, the immediate resistance stood at the 1,187 point-level, followed by the 1,200-point psychological mark while the immediate support level was still seen at 1,165, it said adding that the next support level was 1,135, followed by the 1,100-point psychological mark.

The Finance Index went up 71.58 points to 9,622.28, the Plantation Index increased 63.55 points to 5,674.89, the Industrial Index rose 27.12 points to 2,613.12 and the FBMEmas Index advanced 52.21 points to 7,969.99.The FBM Top 100 added 50.75 points to 7,749.21 but the newly-introduced FTSE Bursa Malaysia ACE Index declined 24.65 points to 4,242.31.

Advancers outnumbered decliners by 403 to 299 while 215 counters were unchanged and 311 others untraded.Total turnover jumped to 1.047 billion shares worth RM1.658 billion from 795.195 million shares worth RM1.224 billion yesterday. Among the top gainers were Nestle that rose RM1.60 to RM33.60, British American Tobacco that perked up 70 sen to RM48.00 and Lafarge that jumped 41 sen to RM6.48.

Among the actives, KNM Group slipped two sen to 85.5 sen, Ramunia dropped 2.5 sen to 58 sen, Kinsteel edged up five sen to RM1.05, Lion inched down one sen to 47.5 sen and SAAG Consolidated narrowed half a sen to 27.5 sen.Among the heavyweights, Sime Darby rose 14 sen to RM8.37, Maybank added 10 sen to RM6.78, Tenaga Nasional jumped three sen to RM8.16, IOI Corp perked up eight sen to RM4.98 and Genting widened 10 sen to RM6.40.

Volume on the Main Market increased to RM956.024 million shares valued at RM1.636 billion from 690.531 million shares worth RM1.203 billion yesterday.The ACE Market turnover dropped to 53.826 million shared worth RM9.541 million from 74.924 million shares worth RM12.937 million.Warrants climbed to 31.158 million units worth RM8.876 million from 23.520 million units worth RM5.246 million. - Bernama