FBM KLCI falls nearly 9pts at midday

KUALA LUMPUR: All key Asian markets fell at the midday break on Wednesday, Oct 28 as sentiment was dented by the decline in US consumer confidence, which revived worries about the strength of the economic recovery.

At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI fell 8.70 points or 0.69% to 1,251.6. Turnover was 469.66 million shares valued at RM484.52 million. There were 166 gainers, 383 losers and 224 stocks unchanged.

Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.45% to 10,064.36; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.66% to 21,8--.95, while Shanghai's Composite Index fell 1.23% to 2,984.26 and Singapore's Straits Times Index slide 0.9% to 2,670.31.

Oil fell 27 cents to US$79.28. According to Reuters, industry data showed a surprise large drawdown in U.S. crude inventories that blunted the impact of a strengthening dollar and weak Asian equities.

The American Petroleum Institute data showed after the contract's settlement on Tuesday that U.S. crude stocks fell by 3.5 million barrels last week, compared with a forecast for a 1.8 million barrel build in a Reuters poll.

Crude palm oil futures fell RM8 to RM2,162 while US spot gold fell US$1.19 to US$1,038.86.

Tanjong and CIMB fell 32 sen each to RM15.16 and RM12.46, HL Ban 16 sen to RM7.62, Bursa 15 sen to RM8.23 while Genting gave up 10 sen to RM7.39.

MBL was the most active with 49.25 million shares done, adding nine sen to 74 sen.

Green packet-WA added six sen to 68 sen, Green Packet two sen to RM1.10 while RedTone and MoBif were unchanged at 28.5 sen and eight sen each.

IJM-WC rose the most, adding 34 sen to RM1.27 with 5.77 million units done while smaller PLANTATION [] players including Riverview rose 14 sen to RM2.30 and UMCCA 13 sen to RM8.13.