FBM KLCI climbs above 1,200

Tags: Banks | Genting | Plantations

Written by Joseph Chin
Thursday, 10 September 2009 10:15

KUALA LUMPUR: The firm close on Wall Street provided the impetus for investors to return to the markets in early trade on Thursday, Sept 10 sending the 30-stock FBM KLCI past the crucial 1,200 level, aided by gains in Tanjong and Genting.

At 10am, the FBM KLCI rose 8.81 points to 1,205.27. Turnover was 117.51 million shares done valued at RM162.16 million. There were 223 gainers, 77 losers and 159 counters unchanged.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 1.6% higher at 21,178.12; Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced 1.36% to 10,452.51; Singapore's Straits Times Index added 1.23% to 2,683.15.Shanghai's Composite Index shed 0.5% to 2,931.53.

Light crude oil was trading 35 cents higher at US$71.66.

HwangDBS Vickers Research said with overseas sentiment still upbeat - the key U.S. equity indices were up between 0.5% and 1.1% last night - the Malaysian bourse would probably want to extend its run-up.

"The FBM KLCI may pull away from the resistance-turned-support level of 1,190 and chart a fresh high for the year, as the benchmark index makes its way to 1,230, which is the next resistance target.

"In terms of news flows, the index of industrial production (IPI) report is due today to provide an insight into the strength of our economic recovery in July," it said.

The consensus is anticipating a year-on-year contraction of 10.7% in the IPI for that month. Separately, the PLANTATION [] statistics including inventory and production for August would be out too.

This comes as share prices of plantation companies continue to hold up firmly despite the backslide in CPO (crude palm oil) price, which has tumbled 22% to RM2,200 per tonne since mid-May.

Tanjong rose 26 sen to RM15.80 and HL Industries15 sen to RM3.87. Genting climbed 12 sen to RM6.99. However, the call warrants on Genting Singapore, GentingS-C1 fell five sen to 36 sen with 11.8 million units done and Genting-CN slipped eight sen to 82 sen.

Among banks, Public Bank-F rose 12 sen to RM10.10 and CIMB 10 sen higher to RM10.58. As for plantations, Far East added 18 sen to RM6.40 and United Plantations 10 sen to RM13.50.

BToto rose 12 sen to RM4.44. CIMB Equities Research reiterated its Outperform call on B-Toto, with the potential share price triggers being its steady top-line growth, more market share gains and positive response to its Power Lotto replacement game.

KNM was the most active with 16.2 million shares done, inching up 0.5 sen to 73 sen.

Among the decliners were Proton, down 10 sen to RM3.64 after several days of rally, Rubberex-LA dropped nine sen to 96 sen while Nestle slipped four sen to RM33.90.