Bursa Malaysia trails key markets

Tags: equities | Hirohisa Fujii | US dollar | yen

Written by Joseph Chin
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 13:12

KUALA LUMPUR: While most key Asian markets, except Shanghai, managed to snap out of their recent losses after the Japanese yen started to weaken against the US dollar, the local stock market put up a lacklustre performance at the midday break on Tuesday, Sept 29.

At midday, the FBM KLCI rose 1.08 points to 1,207.03. Turnover was 306.92 million shares valued at RM317.67 million. The broader market saw advancers leading decliners three to two, with 309 gainers, 198 losers and 230 stocks unchanged.

The yen weakened against the greenback in the morning session to as low as 90.23 after Tokyo refused to rule out currency intervention. At 12.30pm, it was 89.96 to the US dollar versus the high of 88.22 on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.69% to 10,078.63 as exporters would benefit from a weaker yen.

Reuters reported the yen slid after Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said that intervention might be an option if currency moves were irregular, even though he reiterated it was wrong for any country to try to win a competitive edge by devaluing its currency.

"If moves are irregular, there is a possibility we might take whatever action deemed necessary for the sake of the country," Fujii told a news conference

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 2.3% to 21,051.87 and Singapore's Straits Times Index gained 1.6% to 2,670.68 but Shanghai's Composite Index fell 0.91% to 2,738.34.

Crude palm oil futures rose RM7 to RM2,110.

BAT was the top gainer, adding 38 sen to RM44.98 with 7,500 shares done while Hai-O added 20 sen to RM5.62, Kawan 15 sen to RM1.16 and Apollo 10 sen up to RM2.86.

Petronas Dagangan added 12 sen to RM8.55, EON Cap, Tanjong and Pos advanced 10 sen each to RM5.49, RM15 and RM2.21 respectively.

KNM was the most active with 30.65 million shares done.

Bintulu Port lost 20 sen to RM6.10 while Star and UPA shed 10 sen each to RM3.22 and RM1.39, Alam shed nine sen to RM1.88 and M3Nergy was eight sen lower at RM1.70.